Harry Potter and the Locked Room
by Hubard
Summary: Harry's year after HBP. Enjoy.
1. Goodbye

Harry's year after HBP.

**Goodbye.**

Harry awoke to the sound of snoring. He was used to this of course; at Hogwarts he shared a dormitory with his best friend Ron, and when at the Dursley's Dudley and Uncle Vernon could be heard from the bottom of the garden.

But Harry was at no 4. Privet Drive, and the snoring was coming from much closer than down the hall. His mind was fuggy from sleep and it took Harry a while to remember that Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had decided to come and live with him.

His days at Privet Drive had never been, and would never be, considered fun. Even taunting Dudley until he turned purple wasn't fun, satisfying to be sure, but not fun. Yet for the first time in Harry's memory, his time here had been bearable.

The three friends spent most of the time in Harry's room reading, planning and talking until late into the night when Hermione would conjure two spare beds and squash them into an already cramped room.

Harry's room had never been so full; 3 trunks, 2 bird cages, 1 cat basket, 3 beds and 3 people. Harry had never been allowed guests at the Dursley's before, Dudley had made sure that no one would want to be Harry's guest. But the two young wizards who had taken up residence with him were certainly not guests of the Dursley's, oh no. They belonged solely to Harry. But Vernon had set down some very strict rules. They weren't allowed to use the guest room, or the lounge, or the kitchen, and they weren't to be seen by the neighbours, and once Harry had made it clear that his friends could perform magic without being expelled they were told that under no circumstances were they allowed to practice their unnaturalness in the house. However they were also told that they weren't allowed to eat any of the Dursley's food and had to provide for themselves. It didn't occur to either uncle Vernon or aunt Petunia that Ron and Hermione could not do this without magic. Or perhaps it had and they were hoping that the two freaks could be starved out.

It was lucky that Hermione was perfectly capable of providing, because Ron most certainly wasn't. When the terms had been set down by uncle Vernon, Harry had written a pleading note to Mrs. Weasley and as a result Hermione was transporting large amounts of food from the Burrow to Harry's bedroom every meal time. Harry remembered with a jolt to his stomach, seeing Dumbledore using a similar spell to send Harry's trunk away last year when he had been rescued from Privet Drive.

Harry sighed and rose to a sitting position, both Ron and Hermione were still asleep and it was still early but he felt he had slept enough and got dressed quietly. He snuck past the head of Hermione's bed to his desk and continued reading a book he had set aside the night before, until his friends woke up.

That afternoon, out in the garden, Harry broached a subject none of them had talked about, "When shall we leave?" He asked.

Hermione looked up sharply from the book she was reading, "leave? But Harry if we leave before your birthday you won't be protected."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "I'm not going to be protected much longer any way."

"Besides," Ron chipped in, "he only spent 2 weeks here last year; we've already been here longer than that." He looked expectantly at Hermione, he didn't like it here and whilst it had been his idea to come in the first place, Harry thought he might be regretting it now.

"Last year Harry had protection outside of here too, but… he doesn't any more." She finished in a small voice, "Besides until he can do magic himself, he is vulnerable, I don't think we should put him in a situation where he might need to use it."

Harry sighed, he supposed she was right but the weather was wonderful and he wanted to be at the Burrow where he could fly in the paddock and see all of the Weasleys one last time before he, Ron and Hermione started off on their mission. To hunt down and Destroy the 5 maimed pieces of Lord Voldemorts soul, the locket, the cup, the snake, something of Griffindor's or Ravenclaw's, and finally the part that resided in the body of the most feared dark wizard himself.

"How about a compromise then?" said Hermione looking peculiarly at Harry. "We can leave on the same date that you left last year. Since the school closed so much earlier this year that's still a while away, but there'll still be about 3 weeks until your birthday."

Harry had sat up straighter and had been staring intently at her while she spoke. She had ended smiling at him sadly, he suspected that she had been feeling sorry for him and had only said they could leave early in the hopes of cheering him up. It certainly cheered Ron up who leapt to his feel, knocking over the garden chair, and thrust his hand into the air, "I'm going to go mark it on the calendar. Shall we say two weeks tomorrow?" Before either of them could answer he laughed and jogged back to the house.

Harry noticed aunt Petunia giving him a disgusted look from the kitchen window until he disappeared out of sight.

"Harry?" asked Hermione tentatively.

"Yes?"

"Are you going to be alright going back to the Burrow?"

"Of course. I love being at the Burr-"

"I mean Ginny…" She blurted. He felt lost for a moment, his mouth gaping like a guppy.

"I know that she'll be there when we go back. I… She understands why I broke it off with her. It'll be ok."

Hermione smiled sadly. Harry had tried to tell Hermione that he'd broke up with Ginny only to find out that Ginny had already told her. He suspected that Hermione had told Ron too but he hadn't mentioned anything. "What if you're wrong Harry? What if being apart isn't going to make her any safer? You could be throwing so much away."

His eyes turned hard as he looked at her, "This is the _only_ thing I can think of to make her safer, I know that Voldemort will know about her, Snape or Malfoy," he spat the names, "will have told him that, but if he thinks it's in the past it might be ok. It's a slim hope I know but it's better than waving as sign over her head and inviting Voldemort to go get her isn't it?" He realised he was breathing heavily. "Isn't it worth that?"

Hermione's eyes were sad, she let out a little sigh. "Yes I suppose it is." She straightened the skirt she was wearing and stood, "let's go and find Ron."

Harry stood, righted Ron's toppled chair and walked to the kitchen where aunt Petunia was looking at him suspiciously in an apron, doing the washing up.

"I'm going to tell my aunt about us leaving." Harry told Hermione then paused thoughtfully, "two weeks tomorrow."

Hermione too looked thoughtful for a second too then raised an eyebrow; Ron had been caught out, "I believe that is half a week early," Harry's face fell, "but I suppose a few days won't hurt." She smiled, he grinned.

He walked across to Petunia and Hermione headed upstairs.

"What do you want?" she asked when he stopped by her.

"We've decided the day we're leaving." Harry said.

Petunia's face softened a little. "Oh you have, have you?"

Harry nodded, "Two weeks tomorrow."

"Two weeks," she repeated, "and that will be it, I'll never see you again."

Harry gave a half nod and shrug, "I doubt it."

Petunia nodded and went back to washing up, "well," she said as he was leaving, "do try and be careful."

Harry paused for a moment suspiciously, "I will," and then he left. He headed upstairs where he planned on writing a letter telling Mrs. Weasley.

He entered his room to see Ron and Hermione flinch away from each other and looking guiltily at Harry.

"Well," said Hermione a little red faced, "Well look at the time, I think dinner should be ready." And with a wave of her wand she conjured a table that held dinner from the Burrow.

The next two weeks passed with lots of reading and a few arguments between uncle Vernon and Harry, who was well passed the day when he'd do anything the former said. It cumulated one day to the point that Ron had drawn his wand and told Vernon to back off. No one had seen him since.

Still, although Harry was saddened by the loss of his headmaster, and was not in his favourite of places, what should have been an awful time, the presence of Ron and Hermione, who seemed to be withholding the urge to bicker, turned into the best time he had ever had at Privet Drive.

The morning of his last day was sweltering, Harry woke early and threw open the window in the hope of letting the room cool down, Ron, of course didn't flinch but Hermione stirred and her eyes opened groggily.

"-'t, time 'sit?"

"Early," whispered Harry, "don't worry, go back to sleep I'll wake you up in an hour or two."

"'k." she mumbled.

He went and ate a quick breakfast, uncle Vernon was just leaving as Harry finished, "Goodbye," said Harry.

Vernon simply grunted.

Harry smiled, some things never changed.

He headed back upstairs and sat on his bed staring out of his slightly curtains until Hermione, and finally Ron, got up.

So it was, at 9:45 that morning, that a **crack** was heard by Petunia Dursley, coming from her nephew's room, she could not believe that he was being so brazen as to do you-know-what under her roof. As she made her way up to give him a piece of her mind, last day or not, she heard another **crack**. Gasping, she rapped sharply on Harry's door as there was yet a third **crack**, if they were breaking the furniture, why she… She didn't know what punishment would be severe enough. She threw the door open when there was no reply, "if you think tha-" but she found no one in the room. In fact the room looked just like it had before Harry had arrived that summer. Well then, he was gone, that was that, and slowly, as she closed the door, a tear leaked from her eye.

**A/N I'm perfectly happy for any reviews, you can be as critical as you like, as long as you don't resort to name calling. Thank you for any feedback.**


	2. Joyous Greetings

**Joyous Greetings**

Whilst there was one room in one house that was now bare, there was another room in another house that was now anything but. Harry, Ron and Hermione now stood in Ron's room in the Burrow. Ron looked nervous. When he'd got off the train all those weeks ago, he'd walked up to Mrs Weasley and she could tell instantly that something was wrong.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm going back to the Dursley's with Harry." He said quickly.

Mrs Weasley looked completely shocked for a moment before a kind yet sad little smile played on her lips. "Now, now, I know Harry's never exactly happy there but I'm sure he'll be fine for a few weeks until he can come to us."

Ron gave her a guilty look. "We'll only be coming to the Burrow for Bill's wedding, then we'll be off."

Mrs Weasley looked confused, "but where-"

"We can't tell you mum." Ron looked truly fearful as the confusion on his mother face changed to anger, "I'm not going back to Hogwarts either," he blurted. Harry wanted to start digging a hole for his friend but settled for wincing.

"OH YES YOU ARE RONALD!" Harry realised that things were just going to get worse from here on, "not going back? PREPOSTEROUS! WHY ON EARTH NOT? What will you do?"

People had begun to watch and Harry noticed that Ron had gone bright red in anger. He knew that he could trust Ron but he had a tendancy to blurt things out when he was angry.

"Ooh," he heard Hermione whimper, wringing her hands. He decided to stop in as Ron was shouting, "-CAN'T STOP ME. I'M OF AGE AND IF I WANT TO GO AND HELP HAR-"

"Ron," Harry said. Rock chocked off his tirade, "Mrs Weasley?"

"Go ahead dear." She said calmly, but her eyes stared daggers.

He looked around at the crowd, "This is not the place."

Mrs Weasley looked as though she was going to start in on him too but Mr Weasley decided to show up with Ginny. "He's right Molly, you can discuss this another time."

"Fine!" she snapped angrily, "fine. Come on Ginny." Ginny caught Harry's eye just for a second and she smiled nervously.

The door slammed open and brought Harry back to the present.

"Get ready," Ginny said as she swept in and sat on Ron's bed, she looked vaguely smug and the reason for it soon stepped through the door in her wake. "RIGHT." Yelled Mrs Weasley, "you three have got some explaining to do. Down stairs, now!" She turned heel expecting them to follow her

Ron let out an explosive breath, "could have been worse."

"Yes well let's not find out how much worse, and get down there before she has to come back up." Said Hermione.

They agreed and fled downstairs followed by a giggling Ginny.

"What are you so happy about?" said Ron sourly.

"Well since you three decided to go and leave me on own and drive myself to boredom everyday I think you've got this coming to you." She sounded far too amused for Harry's liking.

Sitting at the kitchen table were Mr and Mrs Weasley, "Ginny go back up to your room." Her mother told her.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Why?" she said sitting down. "They're not going to tell you any more than they'll tell me."

"We are members of the Order, we are privileged to –"

"McGonagals in the Order too," Harry said, cutting her off, "but I wont tell her anything either." He took a seat opposite Ginny. "She's right, we won't tell you any more than Ginny."

"Fine then. What are you going to do?" asked Mr Weasley.

"I can't tell you."

"WHY NOT?" Screeched Mrs Weasley.

Harry looked to the ceiling for inspiration and sighed. "You both must know that Professor Dumbledore spent a lot of time… absent … in the past year?"

"We'd noticed." Said Mr Weasley.

"To put it simply, he didn't finish what he was trying to do… so we're going to finish it for him."

"ABSOLUTELY NOT! That sort of job is for the Order, not three teenagers who haven't finished school yet."

Harry was beginning to get angry himself. "Really Mrs Weasley? Tell me then, which one of you did he trust to continue his work?" He stood up. "Which one of you did he tell what he was doing? Which one of you did he take with him on his last mission?" He continued, hisbreathing heavy. "Which one of you watched him murdered?" He sat back and looked down, no one spoke for a minute. "If there is such a person, I would gladly hand over my job and go back to school."

Mrs Weasley looked completely shocked that Harry had spoken to her like that.

"I'm sorry, but Dumbledore made it quite clear that I should only trust Ron and Hermione with this and you're not going to change my mind."

Mrs Weasley had tears standing in her eyes. "Why Ron and Hermione? Why are you taking them? Please don't put them in any more danger."

His throat seemed to tighten and he couldn't get any words out, she had struck far to close to home for his liking. But he didn't have to answer.

"That's our decision mum, I'm of age, I can do what I want, and Harry didn't ask us to come, he didn't even want us to, but we're going anyway."

Tears were streaming down Mrs Weasley's face now.

"But why you?" Mr Weasley asked Harry. "Why out of everyone in the Order did he choose you, Harry? I don't mean to belittle you; you have done some remarkable things, but you are still only 16."

"We can't tell you." Said Ron. Mrs Weasley got up and hugged Ron tightly, "Please Ron. Don't keep this from us. We are your parents you can trust-"

"It's the prophecy isn't it?" said Ginny from across the table, "You heard the prophecy about you and Voldemort in the department of mysteries."

Harry sat with his jaw hanging slightly.

"Harry?" said Hermione from next to him. "Maybe we should tell the truth? Just about why Dumbledore trusted you." She looked a little scared of the look he must have had on his face.

"Dumbledore told us to tell no one, he trusted you to remember that."

"I think we should tell them in confidence, unless they make up there own mind and get it wrong."

"Hermione?" said Ron weakly.

And before Harry could stop her or even move she quickly blurted, "Dumbledore is Harry's Grandfather." Silence came from around the table. Harry was frozen half standing and Ron looked like he had been about to put a hand over Hermione's mouth but hadn't got there before he was stunned. They were completely shocked by the lie she had told and the other three looked as though they'd just got a sock full of rocks for Christmas.

Harry had to struggle not to laugh at the absurdity of that comment. Mr Weasley looked thoughtful for a second, "But-"

"Well, great great grandfather really, and from Harry's father's side, so Harry couldn't stay with Dumbledore because the protection from his mother's blood wouldn't work." She reeled off quickly.

"Blood protection?"

"Yes you see when Harry's mother gave her life to save him, when Voldemort," Ron flinched, "attacked him as a baby; she gave him a protection that even Voldemort couldn't penetrate. Dumbledore had to leave him with the only person who had his mother's blood, Harry's aunt."

Ron had apparently got over his shock. "So you see why Dumbledore trusted Harry now? And we promised we wouldn't tell anyone what he was doing."

Ron's parents looked unsure of themselves, for the first time. Hermione had thrown them off balance, Hermione decided this would be a very good time to leave and got up, she gave Mrs Weasley an apologetic look and twitched her head for the boys to follow.

Harry raised an eyebrow disapprovingly when they had reached Ron's room. "My grandfather?" He sat down on Ron's bed and folded his arms. "I thought they were going to laugh."

Hermione tutted. "Honestly, two parts truth one part lie, mix it with lots of information really quickly, and people will believe anything." She looked very smug and Harry felt worried.

"That was pretty risky." He said, "but it worked… we'll just have to live with the consequences now."

Just then the door burst open, and bounced loudly against the wall, revealing a fuming young red headed witch.

"I can understand," said Ginny quietly as she strode into the room, "if you can't tell me something." Her voice may have been quiet but it was laced with hot flame. "But don't you dare lie to me."

"We didn't." Said Ron.

"Don't give me that," she said, her voice raising. "I know you all too well," she continued, "you are not Dumbledores great anything. The look on your face when Hermione said that…" she shook her head, "it gave it all away. And besides, I just heard you talking from outside."

She turned, giving them all hurt glares, and walked back to the door, her hair dancing behind her. She stopped as she reached it. "You were lucky. Mum and Dad didn't realise... But you'll never be able to lie to me." She left and shut the door.

Harry sat with his head in his hands, he'd been back less than an hour and he already feared that Ginny would never speak to him again. Ron and Hermione had started bickering but Harry wasn't listening, he felt like he'd just been kicked in the chest by a hippogriff. _Still_, he thought, _maybe it's better this way. Maybe if Voldemort heard that they were fighting he'd pass her up as a lost cause and leave her alone. _He would have to make the next argument a little more public.

The wedding was to take place in France, Harry had been told where, but he hadn't recognised the name and promptly forgot. The date was set after Harry's birthday sometime in early August, but once again, Harry had forgotten exactly when. He had very little to do with the wedding and so he and Ron spent their days talking or going to the paddock to fly.

Mrs Weasley was almost never at home. She was constantly popping off to France to organise this or that and was somewhat irritable when she returned. Harry had noticed a slight tension between himself and Mrs Weasley ever since they had argued about his search for the remaining Horcruxes.

Mr Weasley caught them there one day and they had another talk about what they were doing. He hadn't pried or asked many questions, he just let it be known that he and Mrs Weasley would support them any way that they could. So Harry didn't feel the least bit guilty when he asked whether Mr Weasley could arrange for apparition tests, as soon after Harry's Birthday as he could, for both Harry and Ron.

The more you want time to stop, the faster time seems to travel. Harry's birthday kept getting closer and closer until the morning dawned early and bright when Harry was seventeen. The heat in Ron's Fred and Georges old room drove Harry downstairs fairly soon after sun rise, to find Mr's Weasley preparing breakfast.

"Hello dear," she greeted him.

"Morning," he replied groggily.

She looked up slightly disapprovingly, "here," she said dishing up bacon and eggs.

"Thank you." He sat down and lazily fed himself, and everything felt ok again with Mrs Weasley.

Until… "You know Ginny told me what you did."

Harry's fork froze half way to his mouth; he could not believe that Ginny would snitch on them like that. He knew that she was angry but he had always thought that she could be trusted.

"It was a very noble thing of you to do." That didn't make any sense at all, how was lying to them a noble thing to do. Harry felt that he was missing the greater part of this conversation. "But I do so hope you've done it for the right reasons."

This confused Harry even more. "The right reasons?"

"To break up with her to keep her safe is all well and good, but she will wait for you I'm sure, and if you are not prepared to take her back after… well after… everything, well you should let her know that."

Harry didn't say anything for a long while. His confusion had gone, but now he felt incredibly uncomfortable having this conversation, very similar to the one that he'd had with Hermione, with Ginny's mother. "Mrs Weasley, the reason I broke up with her was so t hat she'd be alive to come back _to._" He paused. "But Voldemort has to think that Ginny doesn't matter to me. He _has_ to."

"Ok then Harry." She said, and then went back to cooking.

The remainder of Harry's birthday was distinctly more pleasant. He received little presents from his friends, nothing too fancy, which he was happy about, mostly they were made by hand, although Fred and George gave him prototypes from the shop.

"We understand you're not going back to Hogwarts." Fred had said pulling him aside.

"Which means you'll be doing something thoroughly dangerous." Said George.

"And you'll be in the perfect position to try some of these out and tell us how they do."

Harry was particularly interested in the concoction confundus. It looked like nothing more than a tin of beans but when shook it would give you five seconds before releasing a powerful confundus charm on everyone within a certain range. Harry didn't say anything but he was fairly sure they would come in handy.

Members of the order turned up for a few minutes and dropped off a present or two or just said hello. Harry noticed that Lupin and Tonks arrived hand in hand.

Most people had been and gone by mid afternoon and Harry and most of the Weasley's went to fly. He always felt good when he was flying, and Fred and George broke out the quiditch balls and a game was started up.

That evening when all was quiet and the day was nearly over, Ginny came to sit with him. The room was empty. She handed him his present silently, he found a small picture of them together under the beach tree by the lake.

"Thank you," he said, "I didn't realise anyone was watching us that day." He smiled.

"It was Hermione, she gave me the picture just the other day, I thought you could use it better than I could while you're away." She got up to leave.

"Ginny." She turned back and looked at him.

"What?"

"Look, I'm sorry, about lying to you the other day. But you understand that I've got things to do that Dumbledore didn't want anyone else to know about. It has to stay a secret."

She stared sadly at him for a second, "I know, and I don't blame you, you didn't do any of the lying yourself." She paused, "I was right though wasn't I? That's why Hermione lied, because I'd got it right."

Harry spluttered out a, "no." but Ginny just looked amused by his attempt to cover it up. "Ok then Harry."

**A/N: Next chapter will be called bells and whistles. Thank you for reviewing. I didn't like this chapter as much as the first one so you can slate it as much as you like.**


	3. Bells and Whistles

Bells and Whistles.

Three days after Harry's birthday saw, him and Ron in the ministry receiving their apparition licences, and five days after Harry's birthday the living room at the Burrow saw, Fred George, Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione standing around a tattered book with no cover and half of the pages missing, wearing their best. Hermione seemed almost angry at the book, as though the state it was in was a personal insult to her.

"Three," said Fred.

"Two," continued George.

"Three," finished Fred, and with that Harry was picked up by his stomach and sent flying off to France.

Mr and Mrs Weasley were already there of course, making last minute preparations, so they had left a portkey at the Burrow for the others to follow them.

They arrived on a well tended lawn, with flower beds flanking them, forming an aisle.

Early guests were chatting to each other but most of the people already there were family who were rushing around levitating bunches of flowers or extra chairs.

WHACK!

A lady let out a shriek. "Henry, you 'ave killed one of ze bridesmaids," Harry heard the woman cry. He realised then that Ginny was not lying on her front because she had not been ready for the violent mode of travel but rather had been struck by the end of a pew that this man, Henry, had apparently been moving.

"Oh mon Dieu! Qu'ai-je fait?"

Henry quickly moved to pew aside and bent down to inspect Ginny along with the lady who had shrieked, who roughly shoved Harry aside. Hermione knelt down and turned Ginny on her side, cradling her head.

"Harry," she said, "go and find Mrs Weasley, I don't know any spells to stop bleeding this bad." She lifted her hands and Harry saw blood all over them. He hadn't noticed before because of the colour of Ginny's hair but she seemed to have a large split in the back of her head.

Harry couldn't see Mrs Weasley around. They were standing on an aisle with flower beds on both sides and rows of seats lined up beyond them. At the end of the aisle was an arch of roses and then a slightly raised grassy platform. The glade they were in was oval shaped and the aisle dissected it across the centre so that the trees were near by at either end of the aisle and far away on either side. There was a single track leading into the glade and near to the entrance of the track was a huge Tent. "She must be in there," said George pointing to a Marquee. "Yeah, I can't see her any where out here." Said Fred.

The three of them started running. Harry burst through the open canvas doors and crashed straight into Charlie Weasley. The plates he had been carrying smashed into millions of pieces and the two men tumbled to the ground in a knot of limbs where Fred and George tripped over them and went ended up sprawled on the floor.

"Harry what-?"

"Where's your mum? Ginny's been hurt."

"Oi. Mum." He yelled as they all got to their feet.

But Mrs Weasley had already arrived, looking furiously at all of the smashed crockery. "What on earth did you think you were doing boys? Tearing in here at that speed, look what you've done, you could have-."

"Ginny's been hurt." Harry cut in.

"Mrs Weasley's face paled. "What happened?"

"Come on." Said Fred, "We'll tell you as we go."

The 5 of them hurried out. "Some guy called Henry-." Started George.

"Henry? He's a menace of a man, he really is. I told Fleur we could handle it but no, she had to get that, that, cousin of hers to help. Help she calls it, help. He's done twice as much to set this wedding back than put it forward."

They came in sight and saw that a crowd had gathered.

"Let me through, let me through," shouted Mrs Weasley over the noise and gawking.

They didn't seem particularly bothered by Mrs Wealey's attempts to shove through and Harry found himself annoyed with them, Ginny could be bleeding to death just 6 feet away and they couldn't get to her for babbling French people who thought a bleeding bridesmaid, entertainment. He couldn't see any way in so drew his wand and let out a bang like a firework. The crowd were cowed and some went quite. "Back away and let us through." He commanded.

Fred, George and Charlie didn't wait for them to comply and barged through, leaving an opening in their wake that Mrs Weasley and Harry were able to dodge in through.

She hurried to Ginny's side and started muttering spells under her breath. Harry went and knelt next to Hermione on the other side of Ginny's head to Mrs Weasley. And the brothers went and joined Ron who was sitting on the pew that had struck Ginny. They took out there wands and glared menacingly at the gathered people until they backed away.

The wound was slowly dammed up and then it knitted together and finally Mrs Weasley re-grew her hair over the flat piece of skin where there was once a gaping gash.

"Roll her on her back Harry," she said. He took her shoulders and rolled her towards him so that she was lying on her back.

Now that Hermione's lap was unoccupied, Harry could see just how much blood Ginny had lost. Most of it was now on Hermione's legs and dress robes. But she didn't seem to care.

"Ennervate," said Mrs Weasley, and Ginny's eyes fluttered open slowly.

"Harry?" she said softly, squinting up at him, "'sall fuzzy. Why'my on 'efloor."

"It's ok, you're fine." He told her. "She's lost a lot of blood Mrs Weasley, have you got a replenishing potion?"

"No dear, but there's one at home, above the sink in the bathroom, it might be an idea to bring back an anti befuddlement draught as well, would you be a dear?"

"Of course." He stood up and with a horrible sensation he was pulled and pushed into the bathroom at the Burrow. He quickly found what he was looking for and prepared to disapperate when he heard a shrill whistling. After a couple of seconds he heard a knock at the door.

He withdrew his wand and tried to creep down the stairs but they creaked so much it was a pointless effort. He walked to the door, stood to the side, flung it open and thrust his wand out ahead of him. He came face to face with a very wide eyed Percy Weasley.

"Er… Percy."

Harry suddenly remembered a rather abusive letter Percy had once written that described Harry as dangerous and unstable. He wasn't really helping his case. Harry lowered his wand.

"Percy looked thoroughly shocked, "er, I, um, I got a letter, saying that there would be a portkey here that could take me to Bill's wedding if I would like to come. I'm judging, by the fact that you have your wand drawn, that you weren't expecting me."

"I was under the impression that you weren't on speaking terms with the rest of your family."

"I, well, I think that Bill saw this as a way to rebuild some bridges. I still cannot say I agree with what my family are doing, but on an occasion like this I suppose I can look past the issues between us."

Harry couldn't believe his ears, Percy had gone against everything his family had believed in and sided with the Ministry of Magic, against Harry, when he had tried to tell people that Voldemort was back. Percy had been completely out of line, and completely wrong.

"You don't agree with-, you, how. Your family has done more to hold back Voldemort than the whole of the Ministry put together, how can you not agree with tha-?"

"And yet they are doing all they are doing behind the Ministry's back, if they would only tell us what they were doing and help us rather than hinder us, this could all be sorted much quicker and easier. I believe you have been given that chance twice and yet you still do not see that it is the Ministry that will be the end of this present situation. Not you or your Order."

"Oh I see alright, I see that the Ministry was wrong last year, and they're wrong now. Wilfully ignoring the truth then, and doing the wrong thing about it now that they know the truth. Locking up innocent people, having Dumbledore followed rather than death eaters, trying to make me a symbol of your own brilliance. How can you agree with that? Now do you want to go to this wedding or not?"

Glaring at Harry he said. "Of course I do. Where is the port key?"

"Went a few minutes ago, hold my arm." Percy took hold and Harry apparated back to the wedding. He had appeared behind the Marquee. "I've got to get to Ginny; I'll let you find a friendly face yourself. Good luck." He apparated again to the centre of the aisle but Ginny was sitting off on a chair in one of the rows, seemingly asleep against Fred or Georges shoulder. He couldn't tell which. He strode over and sat next to her. He noticed that she had been cleaned up and her dress was just as amazing as it had been before.

"Ginny." He said shaking her. "Ginny," he said a little louder. He glanced up at George, when he got no response, who rolled his eyes. "OI, WAKE UP."

Ginny jumped a little waking up, her eyes still looking dazed and confused. She turned and saw him there, "Harry," she said smiling, and then rested her head on his shoulder instead of her brother's.

"No, Ginny. You need to drink these."

"Ok Harry," she said, before going back to sleep. George laughed.

"Here," he said reaching for the bottle. "Tilt her head. I've had lots of practice at this, Fred and I end up like this quite often, when our products go wrong while we're testing."

"Speaking of your products," said Harry while he was tilting Ginny's head, "Percy's shown up."

"Really now?" He replied with a wicked grin. "I'm sure we can find something suitably embarrassing for him." He emptied the bottles and put Ginny's head back on Harry's shoulder. "Let her sleep a while for the potion to take effect. I've got to go and find Fred. Bye."

Harry sat for a long while, watching the chaos all around him. He realised that this was really not the position he wanted to be in with the public around. He was supposed to be as far away from Ginny as he could get. But at the same time he was perfectly content to have her asleep on his shoulder. As though it was right. It made him smile.

He noticed that people had stopped running round as much. And people had begun to take seats. He shook Ginny and this time she woke quickly. She looked around blearily, until her eyes met Harry's.

"Harry? What…" and then her eyes widened. "Oh," she said, "oh dear." She looked around again and saw all the guests and growled as she scrambled to her feet. "Why didn't you wake me up? I'm supposed to be with Fleur." Her hands shot to her hair as she tried to feel if his shoulder had messed up her curls. "Oh no." she whimpered, and set off at a run for the Marquee.

Harry was left sitting amongst people that he had never seen before and realised that they were glancing and whispering about his scar. So he set off to find Ron and Hermione.

They sat waiting for what seemed like an age. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who had been cleaned up by some very fine wand work, sat right near the front with an excellent view of the arch of roses. Fred and George sat not far away, close enough at least, for Harry to hear them constantly muttering to each other, no doubt about Percy, who had been taken under Mrs Weasley's wing as soon as she had seen him there, and she had kept him by her side ever since. Mr Weasley had been conspicuously silent around him.

Harry heard very quiet music, barely noticeable over the noise of the gathered guests, and couldn't understand where it was coming from. While he was looking round for the source he noticed that Bill and Charlie were standing under the rose arch, and there was a man in long flowing robes up on the slightly raised turf.

The music flared to life and the crowd turned as one to see Fleur, who was standing at the end of the aisle on the arm of a straight back man with steel grey hair. She was the personification of beauty, as she started forward with her father she seemed to float rather than walk. They moved slowly, in time with the music and as they moved forward they revealed the girl Harry was really looking for. Her flaming red hair tumbled in curls down onto her golden dress, the gold shimmered in the sunlight and her hair swayed as she walked making it look like she was on fire. A claw tugged at his heart and whimpered, but he swallowed it down.

The procession reached the front and Fleur took Bill's hand in her own.

Mrs Weasley sniffled as the man on the dais began to speak and by the time Bill and Fleur had said vows that they had made themselves, "Oh how sweet," Hermione had said, and then said their "I do"s she was sitting in a flood of tears. Much like a silver haired lady in a front pew across the aisle.

The newly weds turned and kissed each other and the guests applauded, not entirely sure why this was something that warranted clapping, as he had never been to a wedding before, Harry politely joined in none the less.

Mr and Mrs Weasley turned and walked down the aisle hand in hand, where a carriage with two huge winged palominos hitched to the front. They jumped in the back and waved, as the horses rocketed the carriage into the sky and out of sight.


	4. Flying the Nest

**Flying the Nest**

The actual wedding, Harry decided, was very short. It was much shorter than the reception, which was, in Harry's opinion, overly long. Bill and Fleur had already left, so the guests were free to do as they pleased. There was a buffet, so there were tables and chairs for eating. But mostly there was dancing. There was a bard playing on a stage, he had a stool and an instrument that looked like a triangular lute, and yet it sounded like a whole band was on stage. There was a dance floor in front of the stage where the majority of people were gathered. Harry was scared. He had never been able to dance, and was fairly sure that he never would be able to, yet girls kept asking him, and he had used every excuse he could think of but had had to give in eventually, there was only so much food he could eat and times he could go to the toilet. So finally after his excuses had run out he was dragged on, to dance. All in all he didn't think he had embarrassed himself too much, although he had danced with Fleur's sister Gabrielle, the second bridesmaid and she stared up at him the whole time making him blush a furious red. When they had finished dancing she had followed him back to a seat and talked to him, and talked, and then talked some more. When Ginny had asked if he wanted to dance, instead of saying what he thought he should have. "No, I don't think that would be a good idea." Or even, "Ok." He had blurted out, "Thank you." Gabrielle had looked on the verge of tears. He then felt terrible.

Harry barely saw anyone he knew to talk to and was finding the whole thing rather boring. He had not seen Ron or Hermione since he had entered the marquee and Fred and George were so preoccupied with Percy – who was regularly sprouting wings from his ears or getting assortments of vegetables stuck up his nose- then dodging away from Mrs Weasley's wrath, that they were never around to talk to. The only other friend Harry had there was Ginny and he avoided her as much as possible, although he watched her almost constantly out of the corner of his eye, and was incredibly jealous. She had been passed like a parcel from one young man to another on the dance floor and seemed to be enjoying it immensely. All in all the most fun he had had was the short spell with Lupin and Tonks, who was nearly as bad a dancer as Harry, so he didn't mind dancing with her, and he always appreciated getting to see Lupin, it didn't happen often enough for Harry's liking.

Fed up, he made his way back to the buffet bar and piled up a plate that he was planning on taking the next hour to eat. The afternoon had turned into evening and Harry was not sure how long this was supposed to go on for and thought that it would be rude to ask.

"Hello Harry dear." Said Mrs Weasley, who was also picking bits and pieces onto a plate. She was, for once, without Percy. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah it's wonderful." He said unconvincingly.

Mrs Weasley smiled. "Oh dear I bet you're bored stiff what with Ron and Hermione putting the pews and chairs away."

"Oh is that what they're doing? They're taking their time aren't they?"

"Yes well, that's what they said they were doing, but look," she pointed out of the open door where none of the chairs had been touched apart from the party goers who had moved outside, "they're not doing a very good job are they? Seem to have got distracted," she said cheerfully with a beaming smile.

"Do you know where they are?" Harry said frowning, "are you sure they're alright?"

"Oh yes, I saw them walking off into the woods together. There are Aduron fairies in the woods here. If we are lucky we will see some soon, when it gets dark; they are just a wonderful sight. I'm sure Ron and Hermione are trying to find some."

Mr Weasley rushed up behind them, "Molly," he said. "I've got to go for a little while, Hubard took home an amulet he found and his kids are stuck on the ceiling sprouting boils. Have you seen a port key around?"

"Oh Arthur, do you have to?"

"I'm sorry Molly but you know how Hubard is."

"Yes, yes I know. No I'm sorry I haven't seen a port key, have you Harry?"

"No," replied Harry, "but why don't you just Apparate?"

Mr Weasley let out a laugh, "Far too far away Harry, I'd be exhausted for a week, we're in the south of France. No, no got to be a port key from this far away. Well I'd best go find one, I'll see you all later." And he turned and left.

Harry thought it odd that Mr Weasley did not think you could Apparate as far as the Burrow, when he had done so himself only earlier that afternoon. But he wasn't left to ponder for long before he noticed a ruckus just outside. He went to see what was happening with Mrs Weasley, and found Fred, George and Percy in a pile of flailing fists and feet.

"Boys!" roared Mrs Weasley. "You stop this right now." The three Weasley boys had drawn an audience and Mrs Weasley seemed highly embarrassed at her sons' actions. They stopped and rolled apart. "What do you think you were doing? Muggle duelling? At your brother's wedding."

"Well," muttered Fred, "I thought of throwing a shrivelling hex at him but thought I might miss and hit the Roses."

"And we just didn't want anything to happen to those pretty little devils." Said George winking.

Mrs Weasley raised an eyebrow and pointed to the crumpled patch of roses they had just been rolling in.

Fred and George grinned for some reason and Harry was sure he heard a couple of young women giggling behind him.

"All of you, I think it's time you went home." Said Mrs Weasley to her sons.

Now that the actual fighting was stopped, the third crowd that had formed to watch a Weasley perform that day, dispersed.

"Well if they're going back home," Harry said, "maybe I should go back too and make sure they don't carry on once they get to the Burrow."

"No no, Harry, I'm sure they will be grown up enough to get home without any more difficulty!" she said menacingly. "Besides I think you're right, Ron and Hermione have been gone far too long, could you go and find them please? I really don't know what they could be up to that takes this long, they've been gone for hours and hours, they should have found the fairies ages ago."

Harry was aghast. He was not unaware of his friend's feelings for each other but he really would have preferred to be told about any developments by one or both of his friends. Walking in on them, so to speak, was not the way he planned on finding out. Mrs Weasley didn't see the look on his face and walked away.

Fred laughed and patted him on the back. "What's wrong Harry? I thought you'd want an excuse to get away."

Harry glared at him. "Whilst you might like to get your kicks publicly, I'm fairly sure Ron wouldn't."

"You think they're fighting?" Asked George.

"No." said Harry, unable to believe George had clicked on. "I would guess that Ron is getting a whole different type of kick."

Fred and Georges faces made identical disbelieving stares. "No!" they said at once. "Not our," started Fred.

"Ickle Ronniekins," finished George.

Harry shrugged. "I'd rather not find out if it's all the same to you."

"Come on George." Said Fred, "I think it's time to take our Roses home."

"I agree." Said George taking the hand of a girl behind Harry. He realised then that the giggling he had heard earlier had come from another set of twins who had been introduced to Harry as Miss Rose and Miss Rose.

"Did we ever tell you about the time we turned one of our friends into a badger?" Said Fred taking the arm of the other twin.

"And managed to persuade the teacher it wasn't us."

"Non, non," giggled the girls, "please do tell."

Harry decided there was nothing for it. He was going to have to try and find Ron and Hermione. He walked into the woods calling out their names loudly. The woods were quite dark, the canopy blocked out what little light the moon and stars produced, so Harry lit his wand and waved it in front of him scouring the ground for hidden logs and leaf covered holes. He walked for five minutes before realising that he was not going to be able to do this the old fashion way. He laid his wand on the palm of his hand and concentrated as hard as he could on his friends. "_Point me_." He said. His wand spun round in his palm before stopping to shine light in a direction slightly right of where he was heading. He set off that way. He routinely checked his wand to make sure he was on the right track but he would still call out every now and then to check if they were close. Harry thought he could see a light ahead, and called out again but got no reply. As he got closer to the light he heard a rustling, like the swift sound of soft wing beats. He stepped between two trees and he realised, in an instant, that the sight before him was the most beautiful he had ever seen. He stood at the edge of a gully that was about 30 foot deep, where no trees grew; it had steep edges and a small brook tinkling along at the bottom. It came from a twinkling waterfall to his left, with a rock pool at its base and went out of sight around a bend to his right. But the most spectacular thing about it was what he had, earlier on, taken for one big light. It was in fact thousands upon thousands of tiny lights. He had found the Aduron fairies. Their wings glowed a startling pink, and they seemed to drift in and over the gully, playing in the waterfall, and skimming the water of the brook with their hands and feet. He did not know how long he stood there staring in wonder before he realised that the fairies were gradually moving towards him, he had not noticed because at first it was only one or two, but now he could not see the sky for the fairies and they had stopped drifting and were now rushing past him in a stupendous migration. They left an open space all around; they did not come closer than Harry could reach. It was like being in a river where the water did not come near, or flying through the air with wind that is on fire. At that moment there was nothing else in Harry's world than those couple of feet encompassed by living light. He raised his arms out to the side, arched his back a little and laughed.

After what felt like hours but could only have been minutes the flood of fairies turned to a trickle, and he was left standing by an empty gully, feeling completely refreshed.

Eventually he raised his wand and said, "_Point me._"

Two days later Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in Ron's bedroom in silence. There trunks were packed and Harry was sure that for Ron and Hermione, it was only just sinking in, that they were leaving. Everything that they had packed into their trunks was everything that they would not be taking with them. The trunks were too big to be taking with them. They did not know what situations they would find themselves in.

Harry had his invisibility cloak; Ron had some Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes; and Hermione had a book. "For recording anything we might need to remember." She had said when Ron had given her a incredulous look. As well as these they all had their wands and the clothes on their backs. And that was all.

Harry looked at his watch. It was late morning now and the August weather was cloudy and stuffy. They only had on light clothing, with a light cloak each, opened and pushed back, it was still too hot for anything else. "I think we should go and say goodbye."

Ron looked up from staring at his hands and swallowed. "Yeah let's get this over with."

They stood as one and headed down stairs. Mr Weasley was directing the washing up and Mr Weasley had a night shift today and so was sitting at the table reading the _Daily Prophet._

"Mum? Dad?" Said Ron.

They both looked up and when they saw them standing there together, their faces fell.

"We're leaving." Said Harry simply. This was much harder than having told his Aunt that he was leaving. That had been a relief, this was a burden.

"No, no, no." Cried Mrs Weasley. "Why didn't you say something? We might never see you again."

"Of course you'll see us again mum." Said Ron with a strained chuckle. Mrs Weasley hugged him with tears streaming down her face. Rather than try and escape, he hugged her back.

"Where are you going to stay?" Mr Weasley asked Harry and Hermione.

"Here and there." Replied Hermione. "We're going to stop off at Gringotts and get money out of Harry's vault and change it for muggle money, so we can buy food and shelter if we can't find somewhere to stay." Whilst Harry thought this was a good idea, he was more tempted to use Slughorn's method of freezing the muggles' burglar alarms.

Mr Weasley nodded. "Well you know you are always welcome back here. And if you need to contact the order, we are still using Grimmauld place. It is still secure." He held out his hand and shook Harry's and Hermione's and then took Ron's hand and pulled him into a one armed hug. "Be careful." This was probably the most emotional Harry had ever seen Mr Weasley. Mrs Weasley bundled Harry into a hug and then Hermione. And while they were occupied he glanced into the living room and noticed Ginny watching. He left the kitchen, but when he got to Ginny he didn't know what to say.

"Good luck." She said. "If you ever need anything. Well, I'll be at Hogwarts." She shrugged. "Perfect place for researching."

Harry smiled. "Thank you." He drew her into a hug and knew that he wanted nothing more than to complete his task, fulfil his destiny, and destroy Voldemort, so that he could come back here and hold Ginny in his arms.

He turned and went back into the kitchen. "Ready?" he asked the other two. They both nodded. "Ok then." He turned back to Ginny. "Goodbye."

Molly Weasley stood in her kitchen with her husband and youngest child. She wrung her hands, "What have we done Arthur? We should never have let them go." Arthur laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, sit down and I'll make you a cup of tea."

Ginny sat down opposite her mother. "They'll be fine. If trouble shows up, there's no one better to be with than Harry. They'll be fine."

Molly shook her head. "But how will they live? No, they'll be back soon I should think. Once Ron realises he'll have to wash his own socks, they'll be back."


	5. Coming Home

**A/N : Thank you all for your reviews, it is much appreciated.**

**Coming Home**

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood outside a cottage that looked thoroughly decrepit. The roof was mainly intact and the walls remained, but the door was no where to be seen and the windows weren't there any more. Vines had grown up the wall on one side and were starting to creep onto the roof, and the garden in front of the cottage was wild and overgrown. Harry thought it looked quite good, considering it had been standing there ignored for sixteen years. He took in every detail he could and was so engrossed he barely felt Hermione's prod as she whispered, "Harry, let's get inside, a muggle across the road is staring at us."

Harry cleared his throat, "Uh, yeah, good idea."

They walked across the knee length grass and crossed into the ruined house. There was a small box shaped entrance hall that Ron could probably reach across in both directions. They passed through the chamber and stepped into the main room of the house. There was a destroyed bookcase in front of them as they entered the room with what remained of the living room to the right and the kitchen to the left. Harry carefully picked his way up the stairs on the far side of the room. He managed to dislodge a loose board and sent it crashing down into the cupboard underneath.

"Be careful Harry." Said Hermione. He only smiled back at her, and leapt the gap left by the missing board, hoping that the one on the other side was a little stronger. Upstairs was less of a mess than downstairs. The room ahead of the stairs looked to have been used for storage, and as he followed the corridor round he got a peak of his parents room, through what must have been the only door hanging in the house. Next came the bathroom which he didn't spare a look at and finally he stepped into his room. What was left of his cot stood on the far side of the room, the wood having cracked and split over the years. He waded through the dust to a trunk on the far side of the room, opening it he found baby clothes, toys and blankets.

Harry thought he should feel sad, upset at being back where his parents were murdered, where his life had been changed so drastically. But he didn't, he felt like, after a very long time, he had come home.

Once he had realised he felt comfortable here he dashed back downstairs, only slowing on the wobbly floorboards on the stairs. Ron and Hermione had been searching through the broken furniture, when he came flying down the stairs, they stood and pulled there wands expectantly.

Harry laughed at seeing them with there wands drawn. Indeed he felt thoroughly light hearted. "Why don't we stay here?" He said. "I know you've been worried about where we are going to stay Hermione, and this place is perfect. We could fix it, it can't be that difficult, and put the Fidelius charm back on it. It's perfect."

Hermione bit her bottom lip. "Well I… I don't know."

"Ron what do you think?" asked Harry.

"It's a bit of a wreck mate." He said looking around. "But I suppose, if we can fix it, it'd be handy wouldn't it? We'd have a safe place to come to that no one would know about."

"Just how are we going to cast the fidelius charm Harry? We don't know how. Who would be our secret keeper? Who do we all trust enough for that?" Hermione nibbled her lip again, "I like the idea of having a place to stay and live, but it's going to be difficult."

Harry grinned. "When were you ever one to stop something just because it got difficult?"

She raised an eyebrow in disapproval at his humour, but smiled at the same time which ruined the look. "I just think it's a bit of a snap decision, and we should sit down and think about it."

Ron looked, with a bewildered expression, behind Hermione's back at the sofa which was upside down and broken in two, and Harry knew exactly what Ron was thinking, _sit down on what?_

"Excellent idea Hermione," said Harry, whipping out his wand. "Why don't you fix that armchair over there and I'll tackle the couch." He flipped the sofa back over and discovered a wrecked wooden table underneath. "_Reparo_." He said, and the two halfs sewed themselves together. It was still filthy and tattered so he cast the charm again and then scourgified it. "Now we'll have somewhere to sit and rest when we get tired from all the cleaning this place is going to need." He said brightly.

Hermione scowled and repaired her armchair with one deft motion of her wand. She sat down imperiously on it as Herry and Ron sat on the couch. Harry knew that he very rarely won arguments with Hermione and steeled himself mentally. He wanted to live here again. He had only ever felt this at-home when he was in Hogwarts, and he valued that feeling.

"This is sure to be one of the first places any one would think to look for you." Said Hermione.

"You think so?" Replied Harry. "I don't. I don't think anyone would suspect I would want to come and live where my parents died."

"Besides," said Ron, "We'll be under the fidelius."

"And just who would be our secret keeper. I agree that it would be nice to have a safe haven other than Grimmauld place, but who do we trust enough not to give us away? And how would we do it? _I_ don't know how to cast it."

"I'll be the secret keeper." Said Harry.

"You can't Harry. You'll be one of the three of us who will be protected by the charm. We are, in part, the secret that is contained within the spell. We cannot be a part of hiding ourselves."

"But Dumbledore was the secret keeper of Grimmauld place and he was using it himself for order meetings." Argued Ron.

"Grimmauld place was Sirius' and Sirius allowed the order use of it. This is different, we'll all live here. It would be like putting a key inside of a box, and then trying to lock the box with the key that is already within it. It can't be done."

Harry was disappointed, but not put off. He looked to the ceiling for inspiration. "Then I suppose we'll have to pick someone. What about Lupin? Or McGonagall? Mr or Mrs Weasley? Hagrid? No maybe not he'd probably spill the beans to someone in the pub. Um Moody? Tonks?"

Ron's eyebrow flew into the air. "Tonks? She's cool and everything but for something like this…?"

"Well yeah maybe your right," Harry said quickly, "But the point is that I'm sure loads of people would be willing."

"But who can we really trust?" Asked Hermione, "I think McGonagall would be best."

"I prefer Lupin myself," said Harry.

"Lupin is in very dangerous places very often though; I think he's a little risky."

"Lupin would never betray us," Harry said forcefully.

"No, no, I just mean that if someone found out it was him then he'd be in a lot of danger because he's around such shady characters so often. Where as on the other hand McGonagall is at Hogwarts. It is as safe a place as any, and less people would suspect her."

"What about Dobby?" Blurted Ron suddenly.

Hermione looked at him with her jaw hanging in disbelief. "A house elf?"

Ron smirked. "What's wrong with house elves Hermione?"

Her mouth snapped shut and she glared. "Nothing of course but it's like you said about Tonks, for something this important and I just don't think a Dobby would be suitable."

"Why not?" He argued back, "Dobby would never betray Harry. Although he might stop breathing with the shock of us asking him." He laughed.

Harry, who had been silent for a while, spoke up. "I like the idea. I think Dobby would be excellent. He is loyal, he has powerful magic, he is not likely to be guessed as our keeper, and he is in a safe place with lots of protection. I think we should ask him."

Hermione, rather than look huffy when she was outnumbered, nodded a little and relented. "Ok, looks like we are going back to Hogwarts after all. We can ask Professor Flitwick how to perform the Fidelius charm while we are there, he is sure to know."

Harry nodded solemnly, the thought of Hogwarts bringing back painful memories of Dumbledore's death, as well as happy memories of his life. "But where are we going to find the teachers? It's the holiday."

**A/N : I know it is short and really quite pointless but sometimes chapters like this are needed. Oh and I drew a small map of how I imagine the house to be laid out. If anyone would like to see so that you can understand my descriptions more easily, let me know and I'll try and let people see some how, email or something.**


	6. The Quiet Room

**The Quiet Room**

Harry stood, by the oven and hobs at Grimmauld place, cooking. He had always been forced into cooking at the Dursley's and he had not enjoyed it, however he was cooking food for his friends now, and found the experience completely different without a fuming relative breathing down his neck. He felt like this was something that he could do for his friends, a small token of appreciation for their dedication and loyalty to him. He knew it was not a lot, and in his opinion, not enough, but he liked that he could give something back to Ron and Hermione by giving them good food. He had his work cut out though, Ron had grown up with Mrs Weasley, a wonderful cook, and they had all been spoilt by the house elves at Hogwarts for six years, but Ron certainly appreciated his efforts. He had actually stopped to taste parts of the lunch that Harry had prepared earlier rather than gulp it down without letting it touch the sides, as usual. Hermione, of course, was polite as ever and thanked Harry for his efforts.

They were all waiting for a member of the order to arrive for some matter or another. They had apparated to the park across the street under Harry's invisibility cloak and then snuck into the house –the door having opened at a touch of Harry's hand, they assumed that the house recognised its owner– hoping that they could find an order member who could contact McGonagall or Flitwick. The house, however, was deserted. And filthy. Harry assumed that with Sirius gone, there was nobody now living here and nobody giving it any care. Harry realised that he himself would not lose any sleep if the house rotted through to the core and collapsed in on itself. He hated this place, and he hated the memories that he associated with it.

Harry served dinner to his friends and sat down opposite them. Again Ron seemed enthralled. "'Arry, where'd you learn cook? This is good 's mums."

Harry grinned. "I've always been able to cook."

"I never knew." Said Ron. "When we move into Godric's Hollow you can do all the cooking. Deal?"

Harry laughed. "Ok, I can do that. But if it's a deal then I should surely get something in return." Harry made a point of looking thoughtfully at the sooty ceiling. "How about, in return for feeding you and keeping you strong and healthy, you wash all my dirty socks?"

Ron turned up his nose for a second before taking it into consideration and then seemed to decide that he was actually getting the better deal. "Deal." Said Ron holding out his hand across the table.

Harry reached across too and they shook hands, with grins, when the fire place erupted in emerald flames. Ron and Harry were both half standing, holding hands across the table, when a heavily scarred man with a bright blue magical eye that whizzed around, and only one leg stepped out of the fire place. He stopped abruptly when he saw them. "What are you three doing here?" He growled.

Harry looked back at Ron and smirked. "Isn't it nice to know how welcome I am in my own home?" He said sarcastically. "We're eating dinner. Care to join us Moody?"

Moody looked suspiciously at him and then equally as apprehensively at the food. "No thanks." He said gruffly and limped to the table to sit down next to Ron. "You still haven't told me what you're doing here. Why aren't you with the Weasley's?"

"We're looking for Professor McGonagall. We were hoping to catch a member of the order at some point and see if they could contact her." Harry said.

Moody narrowed his eye whilst the magical orb, on the other side of his scruffy mug, that could see through anything, flitted from one person to the next. "Ok I'll get hold of her." He took out his wand and a brilliant silver fox leapt out of it and leaped into the fire, which ruptured into green flame for an instant, before dying, leaving no trace of the patronus.

"You might as well carry on eating." Said Moody. "I'm sure she'll be awhile." They took his advice and continued their meal.

"So what are you doing here Moody?" Asked Harry after a while.

"That's none of your business Potter. Suffice to say it's order work."

"Ah." Said Harry nodding, "Order work."

"So tell me this Potter." Growled Moody, leaning forward. "Why are you here?"

Harry refused to be intimidated by the old auror. "To see McGonagall." He replied steadily.

"Yes." Said Moody sitting back. "You said that you wanted to find a member of the Order so that this member could contact the professor." He paused for effect. "But there are at least two members of the Order of the Phoenix right where you came from."

Harry put down his fork. "We left the Burrow this morning," he said quietly.

Mad-Eye Moody's eye brows raised skywards. "You mean, for good?"

"Yes."

Moody looked up at Ron, who was still shovelling food in his mouth. "You didn't have a row with your parents did you?"

Ron looked affronted and swallowed. "'Course I bloody haven't. I'm not going to do a Percy. We've left to do a job that we can't do staying at the Burrow."

Moody assumed an evil grin. "Ah." He said in understanding. "You three are going off to do this job Dumbledore left you."

Hermione's fork stopped half way to her mouth and then lowered back to the plate. "Yeh." Continued Moody. "Was quite a meeting that one I'll tell you. Nearly had a ruck in here. Some people didn't think you should be allowed, see. Thought we should stop you."

Harry frowned warily. "And just how did you plan to do that?"

Mad-Eye let out a bark of a laugh. "Well that's just it isn't it. No way, without jumping you, tying you up, and locking you away, now, was there?"

"I'd like to see you try." He said angrily.

"I'm on your side laddie," he menaced, "but don't think for a second we couldn't. I know you lot are all capable of some fancy wand work. You've fought side by side with the order and held your own. But there are only three of you." His eye whirled wildly. "Could just snap you up in your sleep couldn't we? You wouldn't stand a chance."

Harry smiled. "And we are here to try and stop anyone from doing exactly that." He said.

Moody frowned. "Right… Well McGonagall won't be here until tomorrow, everyone in the Order knows I've got a meeting tonight and isn't allowed in. I suggest you go up to your rooms and stay there for the night."

Harry slowly nodded and got up. The other two followed his lead and picked up their empty plates. "Leave the washing up." Said Moody. "I'll take care of that."

As they were leaving the kitchen Moody called to them from the sink. "Oh and Potter?" Harry turned. "There's a bag of your stuff out in the hall just so you know. We nicked it back off Mundungus after he was released from Azkaban, had it hidden away, he did. We don't know what to do with it, it's been sitting there for ages. Figure it's your stuff anyway, you pick a place to put it."

"Right. Thanks." Harry followed Hermione out of the kitchen and into the hall. Just as they entered there was a knock at the door that Ron answered. A tiny man called Dedalus Diggle staggered in, out of breath. He squeaked in fright upon seeing them there and then shut the door.

"Oh Mr Potter, so good to see you, really it is." He said holding out his little hand. Harry shook it and smiled politely. "I really would like to stop and chat, but I'm sure Alastor is waiting for me and I should not keep him waiting. Until next time." He bowed and left to go into the kitchen as Harry and his friends left up the stairs. Harry only noticed once he was on the stairs, that he had been tingling slightly. He had not noticed until the feeling was leaving him, and could not recall when he had first felt that feeling. But he shook himself to rid himself of the lingering effects of the irritation.

They went up to the room Harry and Ron always shared and sat down on the beds.

"I don't like it." Said Hermione straight away. "I know he was just trying to make us cautious as usual, but Moody let slip that not everyone in the Order supports us. I don't think we should stay here tonight."

"You don't really expect someone to jump us in the night do you?" Said Ron.

Hermione scrunched her face up. "Well maybe not. But I still don't like it. I think someone might try something. I'm just not sure what."

Harry and Ron looked thoughtful, and a little worried. "I don't believe this." Said Harry. "Why would someone not want us to do what we must? This is a mission that their _leader_ gave to us."

"I don't know." Answered Hermione.

"Well what if we stayed up in shifts?" Suggested Ron. "We could all stay in here and have two of us sleeping on the beds at a time and the other one could be awake and listening out."

Hermione tilted her head from side to side and shrugged. "Well… Ok."

"I'll take second shift." Said Harry and he promptly rolled over without de-robing, and closed his eyes to sleep and ponder about the strange tingling feeling he had had, which felt so familiar. Maybe he was going down with something.

The next morning McGonagall arrived at Grimmauld place through the fire after breakfast. She had her lips lightly pushed together in a way that Harry had long ago learnt to mean that she was not particularly happy.

"Hello." She greeted them. "I understand you wished to see me."

"Yes Professor." Harry said. "Would you like a drink?" he asked politely. This was his home after all and so he thought of himself as the host.

"No. Thank you."

Harry nodded and stood. "We have a favour to ask Professor."

"A couple in fact." Added Hermione.

McGonagall's eyebrows rose slightly and her lips tightened a little. "I see. And what might those favours be?"

"I assume that you know that we will not be returning to Hogwarts this year." Said Harry.

McGonagall's lips tightened even more and there was an edge to her voice. "Yes I am well aware of your decision. I must say I am greatly disappointed in you all. I thought that you would have had the sense to have, at least, completed your education before going off half cocked on some unknown crusade that you likely won't come back from. Not to mention the fact that I now have to choose a new head boy and girl, since you are _taking_ the two that I had previously selected Mr Potter."

Harry admitted to himself that he had not been expecting this visit to entail a telling off. He snuck a peek at Ron and Hermione and noticed that Ron looked shocked but smug and Hermione had a grin plastered on her face, even though it looked like she was trying to hide it.

He turned back to McGonagall. "I am sorry. But you should remember that this is Dumbledore's quest. Everything we know about our mission, Dumbledore figured out himself, we're not half cocked. We may not have finished our education, but we knew enough to be able to help defend Hogwarts when it was attacked, and we were clever enough to have figured out where we were going to be attacked from and who was going to be doing the attacking. I believe I even told you who I suspected last winter, and I made it clear to Dumbledore that the castle was in danger the night he died. _You_ ignored me, _he_ ignored me. No, you are wrong; we do have the sense needed for surviving. This is why we have asked to see you."

Hermione looked scandalously at Harry for speaking to a teacher this way, and McGonagall seemed to feel the same way. Ron looked impressed. Harry had not raised his voice, but had been brutally honest. McGonagall sat down at the table. "What is it you need my help with?" She said, sounding somewhat defeated.

"We need the help of Professor Flitwick and a house elf currently working for you called Dobby."

If McGonagall was surprised at the strange request she did not show it. "I will bring you to Filius and the house elf. May I ask what you need them for?"

Harry contemplated it for a moment, and glanced to Hermione almost as though he was looking for permission. She shrugged and whispered, "I don't see why not." He nodded back.

"We're going to cast the Fidelius charm on the place that we are staying." Again McGonagall showed no shock and simply nodded.

"Ok," she said. "I will go and see Filius and bring him to Hogwarts. You three go to Hogwarts and find Dobby and then bring him to my office. We will all meet there. Agreed?"

Harry nodded and looked to the others, who nodded back. Harry started towards the fire place as the others rose. Ron waved his wand and banished the slight mess on the table, to the sink. Harry took some floo powder from the mantle piece and threw it onto the fire, stepping in he said clearly, "Hogwarts, McGonagall's office."

Harry felt the customary motion sickness from spinning round and round past grate after grate dotted around Britain, when he finally slowed down to a stop he stumbled out of the fire in what used to be Dumbledore's office. It was somewhat different to the last time he had been here. The brilliant instruments that whirred and whizzed, which could have been paper weights for all Harry could tell, and the small tables that held them, were gone. The space where Fawkes's stand previously stood was bare and empty, and the chair and desks were less reclining armchairs as ridgeback, tartan, pews. But the worst thing, the most unnerving change to the office was the elegantly made, delightfully coloured, portrait of an old man with a long silver beard, and half moon spectacles resting on a crooked nose, that Harry thought would always be there running the show. The whole place was far too quiet for Harry's liking and the room seemed profoundly wrong.

Hermione and Ron came through the fire place soon after Harry.

They began heading to the door when they heard a voice behind them. "Well this is a most enjoyable surprise."

Harry recognized that tone very well and turned back around to see the face to match the voice. "Hello Professor." He replied.

Dumbledore smiled widely. "Why don't you three sit down and tell me what brings you to school, when by all rights you should be enjoying the summer sun." He picked up a small bowl that was resting on the arm of the chair that he was sitting on. "Sherbet lemon anyone?"

Harry chuckled. "I would love one Professor." He said, thinking that he had not accepted that offer enough times when he could have.

"Excellent." Said Dumbledore, and proceeded to take a sweet and flick it at Harry. Rather than disappear out of the side of the frame and into one of the other portraits, as Harry had expected, the lemon sailed out of the portrait and into his astonished lap.

"How… What… You can't do that." Spluttered Hermione, causing Dumbledore to laugh quietly.

"Oh Miss Granger, you did not expect me to play by the rules did you?" He looked at her over the top of his glasses with an amused expression. Just then the fire burst to life and Professor Flitwick tottered out, followed shortly by McGonagall, who scowled when she saw no house elf.

"Er… sorry Professor, we got a little distracted." Said Harry.

"Entirely my fault Minerva, I am afraid I very much wanted to speak to Harry again." Said Dumbledore from his perch on the wall.

"I see. Well, never mind. I'll call the house elf. Dobby." She called raising her voice slightly.

With a crack Dobby appeared in the room and bowed. "You wanted to see Dobby Mis- _Harry Potter sir_." He squeaked as he noticed Harry sitting in the room. "Would you like anything Harry Potter sir? Anything at all, Dobby will get it for you."

Harry smiled and said. "Actually Dobby, there _is_ something that you can do for us."

"Anything sir, anything at all."

"Why don't we explain this to everyone first to avoid confusion?" Suggested Hermione.

"Very good, Miss Granger." Piped up Professor Flitwick who proceeded to take a seat. McGonagall walked around her desk and sat down.

"Filius. Potter, Weasley, and Granger are not returning to Hogwarts this year. They need a safe place to stay and so they came to me requesting your help in casting the Fidelius charm on their place of residence and asking the house elf to be their secret keeper."

Dobby's wide eyes filled with pride. "Dobby will do it Harry Potter sir. He will not tell a soul, or else Dobby will throw himself in the lake, with his hands and feet tied together sir."

"Thank you Dobby, but please, avoid drowning yourself if possible. I know you won't tell anybody." Dobby glowed with pride.

"Will you do it, please, Professor Flitwick?" Said Hermione earnestly.

"Of course I will, Miss Granger, of course." He smiled. "When would you like me to cast the charm?"

"Five minutes enough time for you to get set up Professor?" Asked Ron.

Flitwick chuckled. "I see. Ok, ok. Let us not delay."

They stood to go and Dumbledore waved to Harry. "Come and see me again soon won't you Harry? You know that you are always welcome."

**A/N: Thank you all for your reviews, I got more after the last chapter than I'd expected. Any questions, queries, or criticisms, don't be afraid to put them in a review. I read them all. **


	7. The Good People

**The Good People**

Fixing the house had not been too much trouble, Harry decided. A large number of well placed _reparo_'s and a small amount of conjuring was all that was required to set things in order. But order was not enough for any of them. The rooms had not been touched for years and it showed. The wall paper had rotted away if indeed there had been any there in the first place, any paint on, or in, the house had peeled and turned to dust when touched, and assortments of creatures had made it their home over the years. They had found a Bundimun in the cupboard under the stairs and it had rotten through half of the walls and floorboards. Harry thought himself very lucky; the first time that they had visited he had jumped on one of those floorboards to get up the stairs. Surprisingly none of them had had any idea what the green slime was and they had taken a trip to Hogwarts to ask Hagrid.

"Green slime on the wall with eyes yeh reckon?" He had asked. "You got yehself a Bundimun 'ave yeh? Right lil' nasty buggers they are. Gotta be careful of 'em see, best wear yeh gloves." They had then sat and had cup of tea in his hut, and reminisced over old times until late that night. "Remember to get some of the goo, yeh can use it to clean. Anyways yeh'd best get back an' clear 'im out or 'e'll 'ave yeh whole house down." He had looked confused for a second. "Where was it yeh staying again?" They had all grinned. They had told him countless times where they were staying but the fidelius charm meant that no matter how many times he was told he could never know the location. The charm had gone off without a hitch and nobody knew where they were except Dobby. The rules were quite simple; as long as Dobby did not speak the location of Harry, Ron, or Hermione home in Godric's Hollow, to anyone who did not already know, they were safe. Flitwick explained that the spell could be removed by either Harry, Ron, Hermione, as they were named in the secret, or Dobby as he was the secret keeper, and would have to consciously betray them to break it, however if Dobby were to die then the secret would still be safe, he would take his secret to the grave. Dobby had sworn that he would throw himself from the tallest tower as soon as he returned to Hogwarts so that there would be no chance of the spell being broken. Harry had had to forbid him to do so.

But a Bundimun was not the only thing that had decided to live there. Mice had infested most of the house, but Hermione had smiled, when she'd seen them, in an almost vicious way and then disappeared with a CRACK, a couple of minutes later she had apparated back with a tremendous yowl accompanying the customary pop. Hermione had let out a scream as Crookshanks clawed his way out of her arms with his fur standing on end. But he had seemed to forgive his master for the uncomfortable experience when he saw what he had landed in… dinner. After a moment of complete shock, Harry and Ron had made the mistake of catching each others eye. It was Ron who had let out the first snigger, but that was soon forgotten as they both collapsed in gales of laughter. "Ow, ow, ow, ow." Panicked Hermione, looking down at her arms. "Don't laugh, do something, ow, ow, ow." The boys had calmed themselves a little and hurredly searched through, _'How To Fix Up, After A Mix Up.'_ Harry found a spell but just as he cast it, had found the image of Crookshanks trying to escape, pop into his head, and he had snorted, the spell went horribly wrong and Hermione suddenly had hair sprouting from the scratches. Harry had sobered up immediately, he remembered then just what could happen if healing spells were badly done. "HARRY!" Hermione had cried. "What have you DONE?" She had glowered at him. "Fix! This! Right! Now!" Harry had taken another look at the book and quickly got rid of the hair and got rid of the scratches. Ron had left saying something about having seen some Mokes upstairs, but Harry was sure he had heard muffled laughter as soon as Ron was out of sight. He cleared his throat. "Well, you know, I reckon we should just forgive and forget," he smiled hopefully. She had simply glared.

Bringing Crookshanks had turned out to be largely a wasted effort; he would eat the odd mouse at meal times, but generally spent his days chasing the garden gnomes around the back garden, or sunbathing on the grass. They had had to get rid of the mice through other means, involving lots of snapping and a fair amount of heavy objects. The gnomes were not doing anyone any harm so they had chosen to leave them until they had a little free time, and they were keeping the Horklumps in check and so they would have to eradicate the Horklumps first anyway. The garden was currently on hold as the house still needed attention.

And so before Harry knew it, Hermione's birthday was a week away and he had not got her anything. It was hard to get any time alone to buy a gift apart from at night. Their possessions were now upstairs in the bedrooms. Harry had moved into his parents old room, which felt slightly peculiar but comforting at the same time, Hermione had moved into the second bedroom, which had been Harry's when he was a baby, and Ron had moved into the spare room at the top of the stairs. Only Hermione had really made any personal touches to her bedroom. They had of course had to fix them all and arrange the rooms how they had wanted. But Ron and Harry had left them at that. They had only changed the wall colour, with a tricky _poenorno_ spell, and the paint became any colour they wanted. Harry had chosen a deep red with gold borders. The borders were particularly tricky. But the boys' things were still in their trunks. Hermione on the other hand had decorated stars on the ceiling that rotated realistically, she had filled up her bookcase in a matter of seconds and had personal chattels lined up on her desk. But, somehow, Harry did not think that not having had any time to get present was going to cut it as an excuse.

Luckily, Harry had taken over in the kitchen, he prepared and cooked every breakfast and dinner, and most lunches, and the other two did not know exactly what was in the cupboards. So when Harry said that they were running out of food and he was going to go and buy some from the shop they did not bat an eyelid. In fact they seemed down right happy to get rid of him. Harry shrugged off the thought as he walked and once he was out of sight Apparated to Diagon Ally. He bought a present quickly and sent it to the back of the walk in wardrobe that was in the corner of his room. It was the best place for hiding anything.

He Apparated back to Godric's hollow, behind the local supermarket, and walked around to the front and in through the automatic doors. Ron had been completely stunned when he had first seen them. Having never lived in or around muggles, Ron was unused to seeing anything electronic or particularly muggle like, and he had, 'ooh,'d and, 'aah,'d every couple of seconds when he had been taken into the shop. Hermione had firmly attached herself to his hand to stop it from leaping up and pointing at perfectly ordinary things. Ron seemed to forget about muggles at that point.

Harry picked up a basket and passed through the small shop picking up a few bits to make it look like he was not coming home empty handed.

"Hello there." Greeted the woman at the till. "I've seen you around here a couple of times lately, are you new abouts?"

Harry smiled and saw that the lady's name badge said, 'Joan'. "Yes. I've just moved into a little cottage at the edge of the village with two friends."

"Oh how lovely, have you taken a proper look around?" She said as she beeped through the marmalade.

Harry shook his head apologetically. "No, I'm afraid we haven't, it's been a job getting the house right."

"Oh that is a shame. But you know there's going to be quite a party up at the high street in about a week's time. There's a steel band coming in from Carmarthen and lots and lots of people will be there. It would be a good chance for you to get to know some of the people around here. I hear they're going to decorate the statue up there and put up lights. I'm sure it will be great."

"Sounds great, I'd love to…" He paused. "It wouldn't be on Friday would it?"

"Yes actually it is." Smiled Joan. "Can you make it do you think?"

"Ah I'm afraid it's one of my friends' birthdays on Friday and she was hinting just the other day that she'd like to go and visit her parents in the evening."

She smiled sadly as she totalled up the bill and Harry handed over the change. "Never mind then. There's another party being put on up there on Halloween next month, maybe you can make that one."

"Of course, I'll do my best to make it."

"Lovely, well, I suppose I'll see you around."

"Yes, bye."

On the walk back to the cottage down a small hill, a little white terrier, with long hair, pointy ears, and a round face with large black eyes, ran up from behind him and started jumping up and trying to sniff his bag. Harry laughed at it and looked around for its owner, noticing a middle aged man jogging as fast as he could down the street waving his arm. Harry leant down to snag the dog by its collar and as he did so the Scottish terrier saw his chance and tugged the shopping bag with its teeth. The bag split and the few bits that Harry had bought tumbled to the pavement and started to roll down the hill. Harry managed to grab it all before it got away but ended up sprawled on the floor with a little black dog standing on his chest waving its big beard in his face. Harry could have sworn the dog had been white a second ago.

"I'm sorry lad." He heard as the jogging man came to a stop huffing and resting his hands on his knees. "Jacob here got away." He pointed to his right where Harry saw the little white dog sniffing in the ripped bag. Harry realised that the dog on his chest was a brand new Scottish terrier that had arrived with the out of breath man.

"That's ok." Said Harry, wiggling his head around to stop his face being licked, and unable to pick the dog off his chest because his hands were full. "Er… you… couldn't… help… could you?"

"Sorry lad." He stood and clicked his fingers, "Come here Peter." Peter looked up and trotted to his master wagging his tail. Jacob too sat at the man's feet wagging his tail and looking up expectantly.

Harry got into a kneeling position and inspected the damage done to the bag. It was shredded.

"I'm sorry bout that," wheezed the man. "Here, pass me some of that stuff and I'll help you carry it home. My names John." He held out his hand.

"Harry." He said taking his hand and getting to his feet. "Thank you for the offer but I think I'll be ok."

"Nonsense. My fault anyway. And I'm only walking the dogs, I've got no where special to be." He clipped a leash onto both of the dogs and took a loaf of bread and the marmalade from Harry's arms.

"There. So, where abouts do you live?" Said John starting off.

"Just down at the end of this road and then a left."

"Ah I see. Right on the edge of the village? Well it's only a short way from here anyway. That's near where the old ruin is, isn't it?" He asked.

"Yes. We've moved into it. Done it up. It wasn't in too bad a shape."

"Oh excellent. Sorry, where was it you said you lived again?"

Harry smiled; Flitwick had warned them that they could tell anyone where they lived as many times as they liked, but that that person still would not have a clue where it was. "Not far." Said Harry.

John accepted this as a good enough answer. "So, I haven't seen you about before, are you new?"

"Yes," Said Harry. "Just moved in a couple of weeks ago, actually it might be as much as a month now. I can't remember, but it hasn't been long either way."

"Oh good, good. Have you had a good look around yet?"

"No I'm afraid not. We've been doing up the house."

"Ah I see. Well there's a big do up in the market place this Friday you know. You should come and meet everyone."

"I'd love to, really, thank you. But it's a friend's birthday on Friday and I'm afraid I won't be able to. I hear there's another one on Halloween though. I might be able to make that."

"Oh excellent. I'll look out for you."

They had reached the cottage and Harry stopped and collected the bits that John had carried for him. "Well thank you John. It's been nice meeting you. I hope I see you at Halloween. I feel I should warn you though, that your dogs are a little too curious for their own good." They had both stood on their back legs, and rested their front paws half way up the waist high wall at the front of the garden, with wagging tails and perked ears, staring intently at Crookshanks who was sitting on top of the wall flicking his own tail down the wall, just out of reach of the dogs. "The cat is clever and can look after himself. You should probably warn the dogs to stay away from him."

John laughed. "I'll take that to mind. It's been nice to meet you too Harry. I'll see you around." And he whistled to the dogs and continued his walk.

Harry decided that this really was a very nice village, full of very nice people, and saw why his parents had wanted to live here. The people were good, the house was nice, the scenery was stunning, and the air clean. Considering Harry had Lord Voldemort craving his death, and that he knew that in the not too distant future he would be fighting to that man to the death; he was surprisingly happy.

**A/N: This took a while to post because I've been in Dorset, climbing up the cliffs on the coast and hiking around them. I should hopefully be able to get the next chapter up pretty soon. Two or three days I hope. Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming. **


	8. Gifts

**Gifts**

The house was finished. They had the inside just how they wanted it. Harry had started to tackle the over grown plants, trees and vines outside, after all he had had lots of practice, and Ron and Hermione were attempting to get rid of the Horklumps. Harry thought that they were failing miserably; they spent more time giggling like first years. Harry knew he should be pleased that they were happy, but he only found himself annoyed. If they did not want to help with the garden, fair enough, but they could at least do something useful like search for R.A.B, or Horcrux locations. Both of which Harry was doing himself in the evenings, after he had done what he could, through the day, in the garden. But the past two days the weather had turned bad. First a mist had come in, one that reminded Harry very much of the mist that had appeared last year when the dementors had been breeding. After the mist, had come the storms. Not particularly bad storms, all the tiles stayed on the roof, and although Harry was hoping that the wind would get up and pull the vines down for him, he did not have such luck, but there was thunder and lightning and horizontal rain that stung if it struck skin. It meant that they were holed up inside all day, and Hermione had stopped having giggling fits with Ron and was doing some research, something that she did far, far better than either Harry or Ron, yet no matter how good she was, they did not have many books from which to research, and she got frustrated, complaining almost constantly that she wished she had a library to go to, or was back at Hogwarts. The closer Hermione's birthday got, the less Harry thought her waspishness had to do with books. He was fairly certain it had to do with explaining to her parents why she was not at school.

Hermione's birthday then, started early in the morning, when a tremendous clap of thunder woke everyone up. Harry threw his sheets off and rose, he got dressed quickly and went down stairs to make himself a cup of tea.

He was surprised to see Hermione already sitting at the table with a steamy mug in her hands. "Morning." Said Harry.

"Morning." She replied.

"Ooh." Said Harry. "Wait here." As though she was about to run off at any second. He scampered back up to his room and rummaged around in the wardrobe until he found her birthday present. He went back down at a much more sedate pace and found Hermione right where he had left her. He smiled and handed her the heavy orb covered in green paper. She tore the wrapping off to reveal a white cloudy ball.

She smirked a little and said, "Harry, you know divination isn't one of my strong points."

He sat down opposite her. "Squeeze it."

She smiled a bemused smile but did as she was asked. Her face changed to one of amazement. "Oh wow."

Harry knew exactly what she was feeling because he himself had not been able to resist using it himself after a long day of gardening when his muscles ached and bones grated. With a squeeze, contentment and warmth would spread through the holder from the hand outwards relieving aches, pains, and discomfort. Hermione sat with her eyes half closed and a half smile playing on her face. She shivered as though someone had tickled her neck as she put the orb down.

"Oh, Harry thank you, that's wonderful."

He shrugged off the praise. "That's ok, I just thought it could be handy, winter's not really that far away."

"What a cheery thought." Replied Hermione sarcastically.

"What are you doing up at this time on your birthday anyway?"

Hermione's face became grave. "I… I don't know. I guess I'm worried. My parents are going to have a break down when I tell them... tell them… I mean, what on earth _do_ I tell them?" She flung her hands into the air. All Hermione had done to let her parents know that she was not going back to school, was send an owl telling them not to bother picking her up because she was not going home, she was going to help a friend. "I don't want to lie to them and I can't exactly tell them the truth." She put on a slightly patronising voice. "Oh and by the way mum we're not going to our final year at school, so that we can go and chase down and destroy parts of an incredibly powerful, murdering, and evil wizard, and after we've done that we're going to have to go and destroy him as well." Her face fell miserably and it looked like she was about to cry. "I can't tell them that. All I'm going to be able to say is that I'm leaving school, with no reason, which will be no better than the owl that I sent them." She put her face in her hands looking thoroughly dejected.

Harry did not really know what to say back to that. Persuading Ron's parents to accept what they were doing was one thing, they knew the situation, they were involved in the conflict, and they knew just how deeply involved Harry, Ron, and Hermione were. Hermione's parents did not. Harry imagined that if they did know, they would snatch Hermione back and try to make her live as a muggle again. He asked her if he thought it was likely.

"I think so." She said with teary eyes. "They don't really know what's going on, and the only things that they do know came from me. If I tell them anything… any of what I'm doing… they'll be so disappointed."

Harry moved to sit next to Hermione rather than opposite her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Disappointed?" He frowned. "No I don't think anyone could be disappointed in you, I think they'll be scared for you. And try to stop you so that you're not in danger. But I don't think they would be disappointed."

Hermione forced herself to smile through her tears. "Yes. Maybe you're right." Her smile faded. "But I just don't know. We'll find out later."

'Later' came round much faster than Harry had expected. They arrived right onto the front door of Hermione's house, mid afternoon. They were quickly let in and Hermione was enveloped into two massive hugs by her parents. They were all ferried into a roomy living room and sat down. Harry and Ron were together on a two seat leather sofa and Hermione was in between her parents on a three piece. The room was mostly wooden and had a warm feel to it despite the miserable weather.

"Hermione." Started her father shuffling on his perch. "Hermione, we really would like to know what is going on. Why aren't you at school?"

Harry winced, there was no avoiding that question, which, if he was honest with himself, was what he was hoping would happen.

Hermione looked at her knees like the school girl that she no longer was. "Dad… We… I-" Harry really hated putting Hermione in this position. Hermione was usually bossy, assertive, and controlling –actually now he thought about it those were her worst qualities- but now she looked guilty, she had been right, there was disappointment written all over her parents faces and it had the same effect on Hermione as Dumbledore's disappointment had always effected Harry. It was worse than having them angry.

"It's my fault." He said, hoping that he could alleviate his friend's anxiety. She looked up with a look that was half gratitude, half wince. "I'm in a certain amount of trouble, and Hermione's helping me."

"What sort of trouble." Said Mrs Granger harshly.

"There is a man." Started Harry slowly. "His name is Voldemort. He wants me dead, and he won't stop hunting me until either he or I die. We are trying to cause his downfall, before he can cause mine."

"You are WHAT?" Her mum leapt to her feet. Harry realised then that he really could have put it more subtly than that if he had tried. "Hermione, how could you get yourself into something like this? What… I… Why haven't you gone to the police?"

Hermione made an apologetic face. "Mum, the magical police know about it, they do, and they are doing everything they can to stop Voldemort… But they can't do it. Only we know how."

"Then you will tell the authorities what you know and leave it to them." Said Mr Granger reasonably. "There is no need for you to do anything personally, and if you are in danger then school is exactly where you should be, Hermione. You have always said that that is the safest place, what with your headmaster Dumbledore being so powerful."

Silence. "Dad… Dumbledore's dead."

"What?"

"Just before school finished at the end of last term, there was attack on the school, Dumbledore was killed by one of Voldemort's followers."

Silence. "Oh dear." Mr Granger said eventually. "What have you got yourself into?" He waved his hand. "No, no. It doesn't matter. Come home Hermione. Come live a normal life, without magic. You can go to college and set up a life away from all this danger. Please. For us."

Hermione's eyes welled up for the second time that day. "No." She said. With that, all too simple word, Mr Granger's face fell, to his eyes he had just lost his daughter. It was like she had just told him that she was going off to war, which she was, which did not make him feel any better.

Mrs Granger turned to Harry and pleaded to him. "Please, don't take Hermione with you. Don't put her into this danger." Harry closed his eyes and turned his head away slightly, but did not have to reply. Just like when Mrs Weasley had asked the same of him, Ron piped in. "Harry didn't want us with him. He wanted to go alone to be all decent and make sure no one got hurt."

"But we're going with him whether he likes it or not." Said Hermione steadily, despite the silent tears. "I've made up my mind mum. I've thought this through, I know the dangers, I know the consequences and I've made up my mind. I'm going to help him." Mr Granger put his head in his hands and Mrs Granger sat back down and hugged Hermione fiercely.

"Oh darling, you know we'll love you no matter what. I just wish… I just… Oh I'm so sorry. It's your birthday and we're all arguing." She brushed away her own tears angrily. "I'll go and get your presents, your eighteenth is a very important birthday, and you are an adult now. We shouldn't spoil it." She got up and left the room with her husband.

The rest of the day was passed with much less crying and much more drinking than was perhaps wise. Harry himself had a glass or two of champagne with the stunning meal that Mrs Granger whipped up, but Ron was never one to pass up an opportunity for any sort of drink, and the Grangers all seemed to have their party hats on, since they had, apparently, decided to completely forget about the conversation that they had had earlier. Harry found himself in the company of four very giggly people, which was slightly troubling when two of them were in their forties and acting like teenagers, and were incredibly snugly, and the other two… well they were just being cosy, and when Mr Granger saw this he seemed very happy and bestowed his blessing on them… Harry had still not been informed that a, 'them,' existed, and that was all disquieting enough in Harry's opinion, since he was completely sober… and alone. It was times like these when thoughts of Ginny strayed into his mind, and lodged themselves in tight corners where he could not get rid of them… and did not really want to. And all the time he thought of Ginny, a little voice would be telling him that he was an idiot, that he was denying himself the best thing that had ever happened to him, that she would be back at school now with plenty of boys who were all smitten with her, all perfectly ready to comfort her after that stupid Potter had let her go. He had a particularly nasty scene that played repeatedly in his head where Dean Thomas had an arm around Ginny's shoulders whilst telling her how he, Harry, was not worth it and that he, Dean, would never break up with her.

All in all, Harry did not really enjoy Hermione's birthday too much. He apparated the three of them home, since it was unanimously agreed that Ron and Hermione would splinch themselves if they had tried, Harry was not sure whether Mr and Mrs Granger were aware of what they were agreeing with, but it was unanimous none the less. When they had returned it was late at night and they had gone straight to bed, but Harry found it difficult to sleep. It was fairly humid in his bedroom and he tossed and turned for a while before hearing a creak from the hall way. He immediately sat up and had his wand in his hand. His door was slightly ajar but it was dark and he could barely see anything. He skulked to his door and peaked out through the gap, to see Ron checking back over his shoulder and he tip toed round the corner towards Hermione's bedroom. Harry smirked, and had to hold in a chuckle, he turned back to his bed thinking that it really was about time he got some sleep, and his wand _was_ already in his hand after all. After a few failed attempts at spells that he did not know very well and some dazzling icicles that he had had to melt with some warm air, he managed to cool his bed down nicely, and soon was drifting into the realms of sleep where he met Dean Thomas who shook his hand, and thanked him, for breaking up with Ginny and then made way for the next boy to shake Harry's hand and thank him.

The next day was dark, wet and windy. They all milled around all day until Ron got hungry and they realised that they had ran out of bread. He immediately set off to the shop with some muggle money.

Hermione looked worried. "Do you think he'll be ok going on his own?" She asked Harry after Ron had left.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. The lady there is really nice anyway, I'm sure she won't mind if he hands her the wrong money."

Hermione bit her lip but did not argue and went back to reading her book on the sofa. Harry sat in one of the armchairs by the window, with his head back and his eyes closed. Ron had been gone a little while and since he was alone with Hermione he just could not resist asking the question. "So what _did_ Ron get you for your birthday?" He opened his eye a crack, just enough to see that her eyes had stopped reading and she was blushing more intensely than a Weasley. He could not help but smile a little.

Her eyes glanced up to him looking slightly panicked, but she must have seen the teasing smile, and realised that he knew full well that Ron had snuck into her bedroom last night, she grinned guiltily, Harry smirked back, she giggled, he sniggered, she laughed, he laughed back. Harry went to sit next to her and pulled her into a one armed hug. "I'm glad for you." She hugged him back. "But maybe now you wont leave me on my own while you two go off into the woods, and you won't run away from each other every time I walk into a room unexpectedly." They laughed again. Ron chose that moment to come back in, while they guffawed, shaking off his soaked cloak and ruffling his wet hair. They both stopped laughing as they were interrupted, but they caught each others eye and looked back to Ron, and began to chortle again. Looking utterly put out, and no doubt assuming that they were both amused at how wet he was, Ron took the fresh bread to the kitchen to make a sandwich, mumbling inarticulately to himself. Hermione clambered around the settee, and giggled her way to Ron where she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Hermione." Said Ron, muffled by Hermione's lips. "Hermione… Harry." She pulled back a little. "He doesn't mind." She said, and from then on, there was no being left on his own, there was no flinching when Harry walked into a room and there was no sneaking past Harry's door at night, no it was painfully obvious when someone walked past his door from there on in.

**A/N : Here's another chapter, I had to get this out of the way before anything serious starts. But they find a horcrux soon, and I've got a thoroughly action packed chapter lined up shortly. **


	9. The First Horcrux

**The First Horcrux**

Frustration. That was Harry's predominant feeling at the end of October. He was now the proud owner of a nice cottage with a nice garden, free of any pests. That was great; Harry was overjoyed when we had finished working on the house. He could finally get to serious work, looking for Horcruxs, and defeating Voldemort. Harry was determined. For a week he searched through every book he had collected over the years, he searched through everything on Hermione's bookshelf that she herself had not already checked, and exhausted himself doing it. But a week after he started looking, he ran out of places to look. And so he was frustrated. The only clue they had, the only lead, was that someone with the initials R.A.B had known about the Horcruxs, had taken one, and had probably died. That was not a lot to go on. Late one Friday evening found Harry pacing from the kitchen to the living room and back, with a scowl on his face.

"Harry." Said Hermione from the kitchen table. "Stop your pacing. You're not going to get anything figured out like that."

"Yeah mate you're making me dizzy." Said Ron from next to her.

He sat down in a huff on the opposite side of the table. "And just what _am_ I supposed to do? Because I just don't know."

"You need to relax." Said Hermione. "You'll think better if you do."

"I never thought I'd hear you say that Hermione." Said Ron.

She glared at him. "You're not helping."

"And just how am I meant to relax? Go to Hogwarts and see if the feast is still going? Ask to join in?" Harry asked sarcastically. He knew he was being harsh on Hermione, but he was in a particularly bad mood, and it felt good to release the tension by snapping.

She raised an eyebrow. "No. But we could go to the party up at the market place."

Harry had completely forgotten about the invitation he had had to the party. He felt like an idiot for being flippant with Hermione, now. He looked around the room, for inspiration, and from embarrassment. "Ok. Ok. Let's go."

"Excellent," said Hermione beaming and standing up. "Come on Ron, put a coat on."

He looked up at her blankly. "A coat? Do you mean my cloak?"

"No I mean… You don't have a coat?"

"No."

"Oh. Well you can't wear a cloak. The muggles will start to wonder."

"No they won't." Said Harry getting his own cloak. "It's Halloween. We're meant to dress up."

And so they left the cottage and headed up to the top of the hill and on a ways, where the high street was. There were lights hung up from shop windows and stalls set up for punch, and food, and sweets, and toys, and pumpkins, and more, the statue that Joan had been talking about was big and bronze and had a witches hat on it's head with tinsel hair and sparkly stars. Harry had been correct in thinking that their cloaks would go unnoticed. Compared to most people there they were positively normal.

It looked as though the whole village had turned out to the party. There were people of all ages doing every sort of activity possible. There was dancing, music, pie throwing contests and pumpkin smashing competitions, to name but a few. The party was so popular that the high street alone did not hold it, people and stalls spread into lanes at the ends of the market place and some people had opened the fronts of their houses as stalls.

It seemed like everyone knew everyone there, except for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but everyone was cheerful and friendly and John the dog man soon found them. After a quick greeting he showed them around and introduced them to people left right and centre, and everyone else seemed just as happy to see them as John had been. The only slightly peculiar thing was that every time he went to get some food from the snack stall he would feel a strange tingling like he had done at Grimmauld place all those weeks ago. And now that he had felt it more often he remembered the first time he had felt this sensation, like someone was running a finger quickly down his spine, he had felt it that night with Dumbledore in the cave, when he had thought that he was shivering from the cold. He knew now that it was not the cold, he had been sensing the traces of magic, and he was doing the same now.

Hours later they were still having a great time, having a go at some of the stalls, chatting to people who they had never met before, but who fancied a chat all the same. Harry leant between two stalls with a paper plate when he heard someone behind the stalls. "The Dark Lord will not –"

"Shhh. What do you think you are doing? Keep your voice down." Harry got rid of his plate and snuck closer. Why had he not thought to have brought his invisibility cloak? Having crept between two stalls he crouched and listened round the corner but it was difficult to make anything tangible out because of the noise of the party.

"A hat on… Dark Lord would… nothing wrong… muggles… Take it… Don't be stupid… Fine, this is your station… I've come to tell you… why… attacking Hogwarts… dementors… sun sets on Monday… we move in… there is a girl… Weasley… dementors… feast to their fill… second mission… Death Eaters… need to know... Gates to Hogwarts at sunset… Dumbledore gone… Good."

Crack. That was the unmistakable sound of apparition, Harry drew his wand determined to capture the second Death Eater. "Harry?" He head Ron shout. Harry swore to himself but whirled round behind the stall to where the man had been. Crack. The other man was gone too. Harry swore again but loudly this time. Ron appeared between the two stalls, "Harry what are you doing back here?"

"We need to go home so that I can tell you something."

"Not yet. We've got something we need to show you first."

"It can't be as important as this, there were," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Death Eaters."

Ron's eyes widened and he gulped. "This is more important Harry, come on."

Harry got a sinking feeling in his stomach, what would Ron think was more important than Death Eaters? He followed Ron back to the food stall. "Ron, I know you like your food, but-"

"Harry don't be stupid, we're going to the statue, look."

Harry looked and saw Hermione standing by the statue, which was right next to the food stall. Harry had his prickling back. They both stood next to Hermione and looked at the statue. It was of a man standing with a foot up on a small boulder, he was resting his elbow on his knee and looking off of the top of the hill into the distance. Both of his hands rested on the pommel of a sword, while the tip of it rested on the ground.

"Look." Said Hermione, pointing to the sword. Harry saw then, just below the hilt two words that hit him harder than a bludger. '_Godric Gryffindor_'

"And there." Pointed Ron to the base of the statue where a small plaque resided. '_This statue was built after the namesake of the village, Godric Gryffindor_'

The tingling he had been feeling on and off all night was this. This was exactly the sort of thing that Voldemort would treasure as a Horcrux. "I saw two Death Eaters tonight, I couldn't hear everything that was said but one of them referred to this place as a station of the other. What if he was stationed here to guard this?" Harry swore for the third time tonight. "How could Dumbledore have missed this?"

"We'll have to ask him. Well his portrait." Said Hermione.

"We need to go home." Said Harry. "I need to tell you what else I heard, and we need to figure out a way of destroying this."

They left and went back to the cottage, where Harry told them how he suspected that there was going to be an attack on Hogwarts on Monday. Hermione put her hand over her mouth in horror. "We've got to go and warn McGonagall." She said quickly, coming to her feet. Ron followed suit but Harry stayed sitting, he was thinking.

"Harry, come on. We've got to alert the Order."

"Hermione? Would you know a way of duplicating, making a replica, of the statue of Gryffindor?" He replied completely off subject.

"What? Er… Yes… Probably. Why? That's not the most important thing at the moment Harry. We need to get to Hogwarts!"

Harry stood up too. "No. We should get the Horcrux first. We can go to Hogwarts as soon as we get the Horcrux safe, if we can swap it for a fake, and get the real one back here, then we'll have it, there's no chance of loosing it."

"Harry how are you going to loose something that big? We need to evacuate Hogwarts. People could be killed Harry."

"We'll still have 2 days to evacuate if we do this first, and if we don't Voldemort may very well do the same thing that we are considering doing, the Death Eater heard you call my name, Ron."

They considered it for a moment. "It doesn't make any sense." Said Hermione. "Why would Voldemort leave something so precious out in the open where any one could get it?"

She had a good point. "I don't know."

"And we don't even know if it _is_ a Horcrux."

"It is." Said Harry fervently, "I know it is. I felt it all night, every time I went past it the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I know it's a Horcrux."

"Harry…"

"Please. I know it's a Horcrux."

She turned away and touched her hair, with her face screwed up, she knew she could be risking lives by going after the Horcrux first, but they could still make Hogwarts safe before the attack. Her head dropped. "Ok." She nodded. "Ok."

"Good." Said Harry. "We wait until everyone from the party is gone then we go back up to the statue. Hermione, you create another one, and I'll shrink the one that's up there and we can bring it back here. Then we go to Hogwarts and get McGonagall to evacuate the school. We can have it all done tonight and Voldemort can never know."

Hermione nodded sullenly, "let me check on a spell first," she said.

So it was, five minutes later that Harry, Ron and Hermione squeezed underneath Harry's invisibility cloak and made their way back to the party. They hid themselves one road away, and waited. An hour later, an hour involving much complaining, cramps, and getting cold, the noise from the party began to die. An hour after that, all was quiet. The moved slowly, half crouched so as to hide from sight, and entered the high street. The stalls were abandoned, litter fluttered around, waiting to be picked up tomorrow when the village would come back out to clear up. There were still one or two lights on in houses not too far away but they thought the risk acceptable. The street was dark. The lights had been turned off. They found the statue, and removed the cloak, Harry stuffed it in his pocket and shivered at the tingling sensation.

"Are you ready?" He whispered to Hermione.

She nodded. Harry breathed out heavily. "Ok then." He raised his wand. '_Vergrandio_' he said. Nothing happened. He tried the spell again, and as he did so he saw at the edge of his vision a red light shooting towards them, he barely had time to turn before he saw it deflected by a shield that Ron had quickly thrown up. Harry looked to where he thought the spell had come from and saw a man step from the shadows; he wore black robes and a white mask.

"You two stay here and try to get the statue; I'll keep this guy away." Ron ran towards the Death Eater. They both fired curses at each other. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and they both decided to do exactly the same. Forgetting the statue they ran after Ron. Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out of his pocket and threw it at Hermione. "Get behind him." He commanded. "Don't let him see you."

After giving Hermione instructions he charged into the fight head first. "_Stupefy,_" he yelled. But the Death Eater blocked his curse and blocked Ron's at the same time. He could not block the one that came from behind his back that he was not ready for, and he crumpled to the ground, stunned. Hermione appeared from under the cloak and leapt over the still man's body. She threw her arms around Ron and hit him at the same time. "You idiot." She scolded. "What in the world were you _thinking_? Never run off on your own like that again. Ooh you scared the life out of me."

Harry went to the Death Eater and removed his mask. He recognised this man. Harry had seen him in Dumbledore's pensieve and had seen him in a vision through the eyes of Voldemort, the pock marked face of this man sent another shiver down Harry's spine. They had captured Augustus Rookwood. One of Voldemort's inner circle. Harry tied him up with invisible ropes.

"Where do we take him?" Asked Ron.

"We should go to Hogwarts and get McGonagall. We can Apparate to the gate with him and try and send a message to Hagrid to come and let us in. McGonagall will know what to do with him." He sniggered. "Or else she'll give him to Moody."

"I'll take him." Said Ron, he turned to Hermione who had made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat. "It's not like I'm running off into the face of danger now is it. I'm going to Hogwarts. It'll be fine, and you and Harry can get the statue. Ok?"

Hermione looked doubtful but nodded. "Ok."

"Good." Ron stepped over to Rookwood, picked the smaller man up, threw him over his shoulder, awekwardly, and Apparated.

Harry turned to Hermione, as he stood up. "Right then. Let's try and get this statue."

Hermione nodded and they walked back to the Horcrux. They stood in front of it looking up at the eight or nine foot tall face. "I'll try shrinking it again." Said Harry.

"No." Said Hermione. "I'll try; it didn't seem to want to work for you. _Vergrandio_." Nothing happened.

"Maybe we can just move it as it is? _Wingardium leviosa._" The statue did not rise up as Harry hoped it would. Something much, much less expected happened. Its eyes turned to look straight at Harry. And it glared. Harry felt Hermione take a step back. The bronze Gryffindor stepped off of the rock its foot had been on and stood to its full height, it angrily swept the hat off its head and then took up the sword in both of his massive hands. It pulled its arms back, and swung the sword as hard as it could at them. Harry threw out an arm, grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor.

"What the hell is going on?" Yelled Harry as they crawled away as quickly as they could.

"I don't know," shrieked Hermione. "_Stupify._" She cried, aiming over her shoulder. Harry turned and saw the spell bounce off of Gryffindor's chest and swore.

Gryffindor did not seem to be able to run, Harry supposed he weighed too much being made out of metal and all, but it walked at a menacing pace towards them. They stood, and Harry was well aware that he barely came up to the things chest. He swore again. He held up his wand and shouted, "_Incarcerous._" This had a small amount of success; Gryffindor was bound incredibly tightly with two inch thick rope from head to toe. Harry sighed in release until he heard a ripping sound and realised that the statue's sword was tearing through the rope. In a matter of seconds it was walking towards them. Its long legs covering the ground as fast as either of them could jog. They stayed out of reach of Gryffindor and tried any spell that they could remember that seemed likely to help in such a situation. When it realised that it could not keep up with them it reached out as they passed a stall and pulled the majority of it off of the ground. It heaved the stall at Harry and Hermione but with a flick of their wands it went careering back at it. The booth shattered to pieces upon the statues head and sword and it just kept on coming.

They led it round in circles trying to bide their time, for what they did not know. They had done a full circle of the rock that Gryffindor had been leaning on when, with a pop, Ron Apparated back… Right between them and encroaching death. The statue saw an easier target and swung at Ron with its sword.

"RON." Yelled Harry and Hermione at the same time. He managed to dodge the swipe but Hermione had run forward in a desperate attempt to help him and Gryffindor swung his free arm at her. He caught her across the stomach and she soared through the air away from them and crashed, with sickening thuds and crunches, into an empty stand.

"No!" Cried Ron as he ducked again.

"Ron, dodge to the side and run." Said Harry, as he tried to think of a way of taking down this monstrosity. Ron did as told and got away from Gryffindor's reach. He immediately ran to Hermione who was hanging limp over a bench wrapped in the red cover of the stall. "Ron, take Hermione to Hogwarts, find Hagrid and Apparate him back with you."

Ron did not answer but popped away. Harry continued to circle away, hurling hexes and curses at it every chance he got. With a stroke of inspiration Harry flicked his wand and the rock in the centre of the circle rose up and with another flick it flew at the statue's hands. It connected perfectly and the sword was released to spin off and lodge in the wood above a left over pumpkin. Gryffindor watched it go and then turned back to face Harry with a look of death.

Crack. Ron must be back. Harry risked a glance over his shoulder to check and was so surprised he stopped in his tracks. Hagrid rushed past him accompanied by his sixteen foot high, half brother Grawp. Harry got over his shock as a battle started that was larger than life, he ran to Ron who was staring in fascination.

"How's Hermione?" He asked.

"I think she's going to be ok. She might have to stay in bed for a few days but nothing serious. Wow." He said as Grawp punched the bronze man. There was a gong like sound and it fell backwards to the floor. Hagrid seized his chance and dove on it, trapping its arms to its sides. It writhed underneath him but he did not get up. He held fast.

"Come on." He roared. "Take us back."

"We need to Apparate them all back to Hogwarts." Said Ron running to Hagrid. Harry followed and tentatively reached out to Grawp's leg. Ron left, taking Hagrid and the Horcrux with him and then Harry remembered that the sword was still stuck in some wood. He ran over and tried to get it out but it was in fast and not budging. He saw Grawp had knelt down next to him and was watching with fascinated curiosity.

"Grawp?" He asked. "Grawp, you couldn't get this out for me could you?" Grawp's uglier than ugly face broke into a grin to show off his lopsided brick like brown teeth. He reached down and plucked the sword out. Harry thanked him and then took hold of his leg again. "Ready? We're going to Apparate."

If they had stayed but a moment longer they would have been privy to see ministry workers Apparating in left right and centre. In a matter of minutes any muggle, for there were a few, who had seen what had happened were obliviated and the ministry was left with a strange idea that a piece of metal had had a fight with three people and two giants. They put it down to an attack from Voldemort and thought nothing more of it.

**A/N : Well I've updated two in one day… actually it's gone midnight so I suppose I haven't really. This was very fun to write, but I'll probably be gone for about a week so I won't be able to update, still with two updates so close together, what's to complain about lol. Thank you all, any and all reviews are read, welcomed, and cherished. **


	10. Number Two

**Number Two**

Harry stood next to a pit that was at least twenty foot deep and ten foot across. It was currently housing one of Voldemort's Horcrux. The night was bright at Hogwarts. The moon was out and the stars shone and the grounds were lit up with a colourless light. Harry did not know what to do with the bronze statue now that he had it, or what to do with the sword that was stuck point first into the ground not far away. He needed to destroy it, but just how he was supposed to do that, he did not know. It was pacing in circles scowling upwards for a way out; Harry leant over the edge and shot ropes down to bind the monster. Without the sword, which was stuck in the ground behind Harry at the moment, it was stuck; it could not break the ropes. Well that was a start at least. He was going to have to move it before the attack came, but he did not know where, or how.

"Wha' is it Harry?" Asked Hagrid, stepping up beside him.

Harry knew that he would be asked this repeatedly, and that he would be quizzed on what he had been doing there. But so far the best excuse that he had come up with was that this was something that Voldemort needed for a spell and that he, Ron and Hermione had been there to thwart him, but this excuse would mean more questions. 'How did you know?' 'What spell?' 'Why does You Know Who need the spell?' Having nothing better Harry simply said, "I'm sorry Hagrid but I can't tell you."

"Ah." He said. "Ah, that's alrigh' Harry."

"Thank you Hagrid," said Harry looking up at him. "For coming when you did. I don't know what we would have done without you."

Hagrid shrugged but looked incredibly proud. "Bah. It were nothin' Harry. Me and Grawpy were just 'ere at the righ' time."

Harry looked around but could not see Grawp, Hagrid's little brother. "Can you thank him for me too please? I think I'd better find Ron. You might want to come too. We'll need to find McGonagall. There's going to be an attack on Hogwarts."

Hagrid's mouth fell open. "Nah. Hogwart's? Attacked? Nah, by who?"

Harry started walking up to the castle. "Death Eaters." He said. "And Dementors."

"Blimey." Said Hagrid as they walked. "Hold up a sec." He said and ran back to his hut as quick as he could. He emerged a couple of seconds later with a pink umbrella under his arm. "Betta be ready I reckon." He said when he caught back up.

"The attack's not going to happen until Monday at sunset, but you're right, we need to be ready."

They reached the hospital wing and walked in to find Ron sitting next to Hermione's bed with his head lolled to the side and his mouth hanging open like a fish. Harry shook him awake. Ron shook his head to clear it and looked grumpy at having been woken up.

"How is she?" Whispered Harry.

"She's fine. She's just sleeping now; Madam Pomfrey said that she'll be able to go by the morning. Hello Hagrid."

"'Ello Ron."

"That's good to hear. I think we should go and find McGonagall and tell her what's going on." Said Harry.

"Well… maybe." Ron looked towards Hermione.

"Come on she'll be fine, you said so yourself." Harry grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him up. He reluctantly complied.

They found McGonagall in her office with Mad-Eye Moody and the tied up Rookwood. They stopped their conversation when the three of them knocked on the door. Harry heard it unlatch and swing open on its own.

"Minerva tells me that you lot caught him." Moody cut across the introductions. They were both sat in the office in dressing gowns with steaming cups of tea in front of them.

"Yeah we did." Said Ron proudly. Dumbledore's portrait on the wall beamed.

"I'm impressed, he's a bad one. The ministry'll be _very_ happy to have him back."

"To tell you the truth he wasn't really that hard to get. There were three of us and only one of him." Said Harry.

"Still, well done." Said Moody, his magical eye, locked onto the captured Death Eater.

"What brings you to my office Mr Potter?" Asked Professor McGonagall.

"We over heard something that Rookwood said before we captured him, we think that there is going to be an attack on Hogwarts this Monday, at sunset."

McGonagall's eyes became wide and fearful. "Dear Merlin." She sat back heavily in her high backed chair.

"I was actually wondering if you still had Dumbledore's Pensieve lying around. I could put my memory into it and we might be able to listen to the whole conversation rather than just the snippets that I heard."

"It is still in the cabinet that I used to keep it in Harry." Answered the portrait for McGonagall.

"Thank you." Said Harry, walking over to the cabinet and removing Dumbledore's stone basin. He placed in on the office desk and drew his wand. He drew away a long strand of memory from his temple and placed in firmly into the basin. He turned to look at McGonagall. "After you."

She glanced at him with her customary frown, showing that she really was not looking forward to this. Harry waited until everyone had plummeted headfirst into his memory before he too plunged his head into the silvery substance.

They stood at the front of one of the stands where Harry had been leaning just a few hours ago. They noticed Harry flick his head sideways as though he had just heard something.

"Come on," Said the real Harry, and lead them straight through his memory, between the stalls and out behind them where the two Death Eaters were. If this many people had actually tried to fit in this space it would have been cramped indeed.

"They have put a hat on it." Said the other Death Eater, to Rookwood, flicking his hand in the direction of the bronze Gryffindor, which was still standing in the middle of the high street with tinsel hair and a witch's hat on its head. "What do you think the Dark Lord would think of that ey?"

"I think you forget who you are speaking to." He rasped back with contempt. "There is nothing wrong; they're muggles, what am I supposed to do? Take it off? Tell them all they can't dress it up? Don't be stupid."

"Fine, this is your station, and it's your head, but I've not come about that. I've come to tell you that you will only be here for a couple more days."

"And why is that?"

"Because we are attacking Hogwarts." The other man, who Harry did not recognise was getting excited. "The dementors will move in as the sun sets on Monday, we wait for five minutes to let them weaken everybody, and then we attack, we will have one of two missions; there is a girl, a red head, in Gryffindor, a Weasley, we have to capture her alive, and then, once we have her, the dementors will be allowed to feast to their fill."

"And what is the second mission?" Asked Rookwood, seemingly unimpressed by the new task he had been set. "How many other Death Eaters will be there?"

"You do not need to know that. Just be by the side of the Gates to Hogwarts at sunset. With Dumbledore gone this should be a walk over."

"Don't you tell me what I do and do not need to know!" Said Rookwood menacingly, with a slightly mad look in his eyes. He paused for a second. "This is about Potter isn't it?"

"Yes."

That seemed to make up Rookwood's mind for him. "I'll be there." He said with an evil grin. "Did the Dark Lord say in what condition the Weasley girl had to be in?"

"Only alive."

Rookwood's eyes lit up, "Good."

Harry felt him self spinning backwards as the memory faded and landed with a thump on the floor in the Head office. His eyes were wide in fear. He had tried, wanted more than anything, to make Ginny safe, and he had failed. He did not know how long he stood there staring at nothing before McGonagall spoke.

"Hagrid?" She said. "I would like you to go and rouse the teachers and bring them all here."

"Of course Professor." He said, and hurried out.

"We have to evacuate the school." Said McGonagall to no body in particular.

"What?" Growled Moody. "If we evacuate now you can sure as hell bet that You-Know-Who will know about it before tomorrow's out. If he finds out we know, he'll call off the attack before you can say Death Eater and it's all over. We could be passing up one of the best opportunities we've ever had to capture his Death Eaters. And if a man as close to You-Know-Who as Rookwood is rumoured to be, was sent to do this, then other high up Death Eater's will be here too. We can't evacuate yet."

"Moody. The safety of my students is paramount. I will not allow them to be used as bait."

"They'll be perfectly safe." Said Moody standing up. "They can get out Monday afternoon before the attack through secret passages and then portkey to a safe zone. We can have the Order of the Phoenix left right and centre and Auror divisions at the ready to send them to Azkaban. No lick of danger will ever brush their cheeks."

"We can have as many Aurors as you like, every member of the Order of the Phoenix and the entire Magical Law Enforcement department here for all I care, as long as my students are not-" McGonagall broke off because at that moment the other Professors began to file in. "Moody. I don't want to have to explain this twice. Would you be so kind as to summon the Order?" Moody nodded and left through the fire place. Soon chairs had been summoned up and the teachers were all seated comfortably in their night clothes, robes and slippers. They all gave a curious glance in Harry's direction except for Slughorn, who came up and welcomed him back thoroughly, and the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. A man Harry knew from a long time ago.

"Hello Harry." Said Victor Krum stepping up, still a little duck footed, and shaking his hand. "It has been a long time has it not."

"Yes." Said Harry, a little shocked. "Yes it has."

Krum smiled and took a chair himself.

Harry suddenly remembered something that he had to do. The tingling that he had felt when near to Voldemort's Horcrux had been felt before. In the hall way of Grimmauld Place. "Professor," he said turning to McGonagall.

"Yes Harry."

"Can I use your fire place quickly? I need to get something."

McGonagall frowned but agreed. "Come on Ron." They took some floo powder an arrived in Grimmauld place in a very short amount of time. The kitchen was busy. People, looking as though they had just been woken, which they had, were grumbling and rubbing their eyes.

"Harry, Ron." Called out Bill Weasley. "What are you doing here?"

Ron shrugged, not truly knowing himself. "We need to collect something," said Harry, not stopping. They left the kitchen and walked into the hall where more people were gathered. Harry felt nothing, no tingling, no prickling up his back, no hairs on his neck standing on end. He felt his stomach plummet. He knew now that he had been mere feet away from a Horcrux, or at least something of Voldemorts, months ago, and had missed it. He racked his brains trying for the very life of him to remember what had been in that room that day. There had been the horrible coat stand, Dedalus Diggle, the portrait of Sirius' mother, and… and a bag full of stuff that Mundungus had stolen. Where had the bag gone? "Where's Moody?" Harry asked the closest person to him, a man he did not recognise. "Err." Was all he got out before Harry realised that he did not know and he sped off to find someone else. Tonks was only a few feet away and he asked her next. No luck. He dodged back into the kitchen, followed by Ron who looked incredibly confused. The room was full of people milling around, Harry spotted Mrs Weasley not far away and rushed to her, she did not know where Moody was either. But some people had seen that he was looking for Moody and were asking others who in turn asked others until, "HARRY! OVER HEAR." The Weasley twins were stood on the table by the fire waving their arms. Harry rushed over to find Moody leaning on his staff looking worried.

"What is it? Has something happened at Hogwarts?" He asked harshly. Harry was so caught up in trying to find the bag of stolen items that it took him a second to figure out what Moody was on about. "Wha- No, no Hogwarts is fine. No listen, Moody, when I came here a couple of months ago there was a bag of stuff that you'd got off of Mundungus and wanted me to do something with it. Where's the bag gone?"

Moody looked relieved and then confused and then angry. "Potter I don't know what you're doing but I don't have time for this." He went to stomp away but Harry caught his arm, realising as he did so that most of the people in the room were watching him.

"Moody, please I need that bag." He said stressing each syllable.

"I put it in your room. Now get off me." He growled threateningly. But Harry barely heard, he was off, running through the house and weaving between Order members followed closely by Ron. Harry reached his room and threw open then door. "Harry," said Ron coming through the door behind him. "What's going on?"

"You know I said I felt a tingling every time I was walked past the statue tonight?" Asked Harry while he found the bag.

"Err. Not really, a lot was going on, but I'll take your word for it."

"That wasn't the first time I'd felt it. I'd felt it when we were here, ages ago, and I can feel it now, right now." He stopped rummaging and tipped the bag upside down scattering the contents on the ground. He glanced around searching, scouring the contents for a cup or a locket, and there it was. He froze as he saw it, he reached down slowly and lifted Slytherins locket and held it up for Ron to see. He took out the fake, the one that he had carried around with him since Dumbledore's death. This was it; this was what Dumbledore had sacrificed his life for. He dropped the fake and thrust the real Horcrux into the air. "YES." He cried. He felt relief, excitement, and satisfaction. He had found it.

**A/N: I was planning on having the battle take place in this chapter but I think it will have to wait until next time. Thank you for your reviews. Keep them coming. Any criticism is welcome, but it's always nice to get good stuff too. Thanks.**


	11. The Battle for Hogwarts

**The Battle for Hogwarts**

McGonagall's office was crowded to say the least. The Order of the Phoenix and the Hogwarts teachers were all present, as well as Harry and Ron, McGonagall sat at her desk explaining the situation. Dementors and Death Eaters were going to attack to school on Monday night at, or shortly after, sun set with two missions, one was to capture Ginny Weasley alive, the other was unknown.

Cries of outrage, confusion, and indignation rained throughout the office and McGonagall struggled for control. Harry noticed all of the Weasley's, bar Ron but surprisingly including Charlie, who Harry thought was in Romania, huddled together with wide fearful eyes demanding to know more, and casting surreptitious glances at Harry. McGonagall did not start speaking until she had silence again, and everyone in the room felt as though they were in her class room. "Good, now that I have you're attention once more; I can tell you what we are going to do about it." She paused with her lips pressed together tightly. "We are going to evacuate the school of students, starting once this meeting is over. We will alert the Ministry of Magic, and request every Auror that they can spare and we are going to be waiting for the attack Monday night."

The whole castle suddenly shook. Everyone clutched their seats and looked around in confusion. Except Harry, who bolted to the windowpane. It was just possible to distinguish the gates in the milky dawn light and what he saw froze his heart. Dementors, swarms of them, were attempting to get through the barriers protecting Hogwarts, and every occasion they rushed forwards and struck the barriers the castle rocked once more.

Harry leapt on top of a chair and held up his arms for silence. "We were wrong, the attack is here already. They are at the gates."

"What?"

"How?"

"What do you mean?"

McGonagall stood too, changed into her animagus form of a cat and leapt onto the windowsill to stare out, her tail flicking, she leapt off the sill and transfigured back. "Heads of houses I want you to take one Order member with you and head to your common rooms, get the students up and get them out. The attack is coming."

"But how?" Asked dumpy Professor Sprout. "They are at the gates they are blocking out way."

"Argus?" Said McGonagall. "How many secret passageways do you know of that lead out of the castle?"

Filch stood up and bowed as low as he could. "Well Mistress there's one behind a moving wall in the dungeons, ten bricks to the left of the picture of Glanmore Peakes," he smacked his lips in consideration. "There's one next to the hospital wing above the bench, in the recess, you push the wall up. There's one on the sixth floor too, but it's real small and you got to go down a slide." He scratched thoughtfully and made a face. "We'll there's a couple more now, but I can't remember."

"There's one on the third floor, the statue of the hump back witch." Said Lupin as Harry got down from the chair. "You tap the rump and say, _Dissendium_. And there's one under the Whomping willow, and one behind a mirror on the forth floor but it's caved in."

"No, no, no," Said Filch grumpily, "was fixed up. There's one leading out of the kitchens too, now I remember."

McGonagall nodded. "Pomona, you take the Hufflepuffs out through the kitchens, and alert the house elves to the attack. Horace the closest to the Slytherins will be the dungeons exit. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are both closest to the slide but I think it would be best to go to the mirror on the forth floor, the slide sounds risky. Tonks? Could you please take Argus with you and alert the Ministry? Argus, tell the Aurors where the secret tunnels end and send them there with portkeys for the students to take to the Ministry. Everyone else to the entrance hall, we need to buy the children as much time as possible." She swept around her desk and headed to the door, everyone else formed up behind her.

Harry turned to Ron and pressed Slytherins locket into his hand. "Get to Hermione." He said quietly. "Take her, and the locket back home." Ron made a noise to interrupt. "No!" Continued Harry. "Get her safe, and then come back." Harry smiled. "Bring the Marauders map."

Ron looked seriously at him, and nodded once. They both made their way to the door. Ron left the crowd on the third floor for the hospital wing and Harry left the crowd once they had reached the entrance hall. He strode out of the doors and headed down to Hagrid's cabin, ignoring the calls from behind for him to stop.

Voldemort's Horcrux was just where Harry had left it. The sword still stuck in the ground. Harry dropped the sword into the hole with the statue, which immediately picked it up. He then flicked his wand and the earth that had been piled up to the side was lifted, and deposited into the hole. It was the best Harry could think of to keep the Horcrux safe. He just hoped Voldemort did not come down this way for he would be sure to recognise the sense of his own magic.

As he started his way back up to the castle he felt dismay, as dread snuck into his mind. He looked towards the gates and in the dawn light could see the dementors flooding over it. Harry ran. He was only half way back when he was forced into action. Conjuring up the image of Ginny, laughing, in his mind he cried, "_Expecto Patronum._" The silvery white stag that was his protector burst forth from his wand tip and raced towards the dementors. The sight of prongs galloping along with his antlers lowered warmed Harry's heart. Other patronus' soon joined his own in battle, and seeing one of them made his heart freeze unlike any dementor could. There with the other patronus' was Ginny's own, a small darting cat. Harry raced up to the front doors as quickly as his legs could carry him and someone opened them a fraction as he burst through.

"Where is she?" He demanded. Blank, confused faces surrounded him,

"Who?"

"Harry?"

"What?

"Ginny." He explained. Searching through every body. "Where is she?" Harry noticed then that there were students in the entrance hall too. Mostly members of the DA, but others too, all of them sixth or seventh years.

Harry began to make his way over to them, and so had Mr Weasley. "Ginny?" Being smaller than most of the other students Ginny had been unseen and stepped out from amongst them. "Ginny what are you doing here?" Asked Mr Weasley.

Ginny's jaw was set and her eyes blazing. "I'm perfectly capable of looking after-" But she did not finish, as a blast hit the left hand door and caused debris to rain down on the people in the hall. Bill and Lupin, closest to the doors, stuck their wands through the wrecked left side and began to fire curses back, others rushed to their aid.

Harry walked up and took hold of Ginny's hand. "You've got to get out of here." He said starting to drag her away as he started to feel a prickle of pain edge into his scar.

She dug her heels in and pulled back against him. "Harry." She growled. "Let go of me, I can fight, just as well as anyone else, you know that."

Harry gave up trying to pull her away and came close, looking down at her, the pain increasing steadily and bringing fear with it, Ginny must have surely been able to see it on his face. "Ginny, you're the reason there's an attack. They are coming for you, you have to leave." Ginny's eyes widened and the people closest to them gasped. "You have to go." Repeated Harry.

"I'll go with her Harry." Piped up Colin Creevey. "I'll make sure she gets out safe."

Harry knew that Ginny could take care of herself far better than Colin could but having an extra person would help, the pain in his forehead was stopping him from thinking clearly now anyway. He nodded. There was another huge BOOM from the doors and everyone in the room was flung to the floor. Most came to their feet quickly. Harry looked out through the tattered doors and his eyes locked with the man who had been the bane of Harry's life. The blood red feral eyes of Lord Voldemort stared cruelly back. As though they had been waiting for this moment they both had their wands pointed at each other in an instant.

"_Avada Kedavra_."

"_Stupify_."

The spells rushed towards each other, green, and red, and just as they had over two years ago, they connected, merged into one long shaft of light. The radiance linking them turned golden and phoenix song soared through the entrance hall, filling the good with hope. The ray of magical energy connecting the two wizards fragmented and the splinters arched and linked, forming a dome over and around them both.

Harry was vaguely aware of a fierce battle raging not twenty feet away out side of his and Voldemort's private test of wills, but the curses that - through poor aim or deliberation – struck the golden dome were absorbed into it. There was no noise of battle inside that dome, only the voice of Fawkes, Dumbledore's old phoenix.

Seemingly inside of the connected wands were oval orbs of pure light, egg shaped and smooth, they were beginning to move towards Harry. Voldemort was forcing them away from himself. With all the will power he could muster, Harry, began to try and push them back. They slowly came to a halt, the closest globe only inches from Harry's violently shaking wand. He had to do this; he had to beat Voldemort off so that he could find Ginny and get her away. It began to work and the beams movement was now heading away from him, his wand quieted and Voldemort's began to quiver, but it was not enough, and the beads stopped their sluggish journey.

Voldemort smiled cruely, "It has been too long Harry. Where have you been keeping yourself? I've been looking for you."

"I've been safe." Gasped Harry.

"Safe, Harry?" He replied almost pleasantly, "No, Harry, there is no safe place from me in the end, as you see, I have found you, and I shall kill you."

Harry did not know how long they stood there, facing it off, but the beads of light moved back and forth and Harry became aware that the people surrounding his fight were all wearing black cloaks and white masks. More than ever Harry forced the beads away from him, but it seemed that Voldemort was pushing with equal measure; the beads were bunching in the centre of the thread of magic, getting closer and closer until they were squashed into an incredibly bright ball. As intense as the sun, everyone was forced to turn away and as destructive as the sun, it exploded. The force rocked the castle and threw everyone who had been in close proximity – and a fair few people who had not – against the wall behind them, leaving burns in its wake. Harry himself felt the front of his body being singed but did not have time to pay the pain much attention as he flew through the air backwards and struck Hufflepuff's hour glass, which kept track of the points that the house had amassed. At some point in the fight it had been shattered and he felt sharp bits of glass stick in his back.

Harry glanced around quickly and saw that there were only Death Eaters here. Harry turned and ran. The closest point of exit was the secret passage to the right of the Hospital wing on the third floor and he charged up the staircases as fast as possible. As he came off of the steps on the second floor he had no time to prepare for the hand that shot out from a door to the left and yank him into an empty classroom.

Harry had an arm wrapped around his mouth and another tightly holding him against someone, pressing the shards of glass in his back deeper. He struggled for all he was worth. He tried biting the arm holding him but his mouth was too firmly held shut. He kicked at shins and threw elbows at his assailant's stomach. But then he heard "Harry! Harry stop." It was Ron's voice whispering in his ear. Harry went limp and silent instantly. Ron released him and Harry turned to apologize but Ron held a finger to his lips seemingly unfazed by Harry's beating, and then pointed to the Marauders Map, which was laid out on a table nearby. "What happened to your face Harry?"

Harry touched his face to find sensitive burn spots up most of the left side. "Voldemort," he said simply.

Harry's eyes quickly sought through the mass of lines to register where he was, and quickly saw that there were dots moving quickly past the disused class room that he was in at present. He scanned the rest of the map and saw that the battle had left the entrance hall only to have spread to the rest of the school. He could see McGonagall and Hagrid up near the Head's office holding off at least ten Death Eaters, Harry was not sure he was seeing that right, he knew McGonagall was good, and he knew that Hagrid's giant-thickened skin, repelled a lot of curses, but holding off ten Death Eaters was an amazing feat. Taking another quick look Harry could see the majority of the Weasley family together sending Death Eaters running, and then noticed that the Fred and George dots were moving through a secret passage way that was sure to head them off. In other places the school defenders were hiding, fighting, and running, teaming up with who ever they came across and, by the looks of things, trying to get to the nearest secret passage way. Harry noticed that Tonks had returned and was with Lupin in one of the passages out of the school. There names he did not recognise that he assumed were Aurors battling and he could even see Filch back in the castle. The one thing that worried Harry was that he could not see Ginny anywhere, even on any of the numerous secret passage ways. He could only hope that Colin had made her safe.

The Death Eaters who had been chasing Harry had all passed and were up on the third floor. "I think we should go and help them out," said Ron pointing to Ernie McMillan and Justin Finch-Fletchly, two members of Dumbledore's Army, who had stayed to help. They were penned down in a classroom one floor up, with five Death Eaters out side, and were not very far away from Harry and Ron.

"And there's a secret passage way out of the back of that classroom that would bring us out in the middle of this fight here," continued Ron pointing one to the forth floor to see Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dedalus Diggle, and Parvati Patil, scraping side by side.

"Good plan let's go." Taking a quick look on the map and seeing no one around Ron wiped the map clean and they both sprinted to a flight of stairs behind a tapestry. The stairs came out opposite the door to the classroom and with a dodge a roll and a dive Harry was inside, wishing he had not rolled on his back with glass stuck in it. Ron on the other hand was still on the other side of the corridor fiddling with something on his belt. A second later there was a flash of light and the Death Eaters spells ceased abruptly. Harry poked his head back out to see them all bumping into walls and looking thoroughly confused. The four young men quickly fired stunners and the five Death Eaters were soon tied up and stored away for safe keeping. The two Hufflepuff students followed Harry and Ron through the clandestine passage at the back of the room. They sealed the secret behind them and travelled up to the forth floor. By the time they got there Dedalus Diggle was laying prostrate on the floor and Kingsley was holding his right arm close to his body and shooting spells with his left. With four helpers, the Death Eaters were down and bound shortly. Harry and Ron hauled them into a classroom and hid them behind the door, while Kingsley and Parvati tried to revive Dedalus.

"How is he?" Harry asked. Ron unfolded the map behind him and began to scour it.

"I don't know." Said Kingsley heavily. "He needs to get to St. Mungo's.

"Can you take him there?"

"I'm still capable of fighting, Harry. I will stay until everyone is safe."

"We'll do that, we know the school well, we have a map showing where everyone is in the school, and making everyone safe means evacuating everyone. We can't hope to keep the castle." And although it pained Harry to say so, he knew it was true. "We can start by getting you two out. There's a passage way out of here behind a mirror two corridors away."

Kinsley looked from Harry to Dedalus, and although Harry knew that he did not want to leave, he nodded acceptance.

"We'd better be quick Harry, there's a large group of Death Eaters moving back this way." Warned Ron.

Kingsley easily picked up the small man with his good arm and tucked him over his shoulder. They all hurried to the mirror and Ernie and Justin pulled it open, and Kingsley disappeared through it.

Harry faced his friends. "If any of you want to get yourself safe, now is the time."

Parvati looked determined to stay and said, "I'm staying with you Harry."

The two Hufflepuff boys looked far move fearful but rather than answer they closed the mirror back up and came to stand by him. Harry smiled. "Ok then. Where next Ron?"

"In here quick." He said quietly. They hurried into a broom closet, only just being able to shut the door with them all squashed inside. They heard running footsteps passing the door. When they died down Ron tried to light his wand to see the map but his arm was twisted at such an angle that the only thing that the wand lit up was the ceiling. Parvati had to wiggle her wand under Justin's arm while Ernie and Ron read the map.

"Ok," said Ron after a couple of seconds, "If we go down this corridor there's an empty classroom we can use, where we're not going to be packed in so tight." They all stumbled out of the cupboard, and hurried into the classroom.

They spread the map out on a table and huddled around to look down on it. It was incredibly hard to work out what was going on, there were little skirmishes going on everywhere.

"Look Ron," said Parvati, "your family are all up there. Wow this is amazing, is this how you guys always got into so much trouble?"

"Pretty much. Yeah I saw, you can't see Ginny on there can you Parvati?"

"Or Colin Creevey," added Harry, "he was meant to be with-"

"Oh no." Cried Justin. "That girls a first year, I recognise that name." He pointed at a solitary dot on the sixth floor. The dot looked like it was hiding in the girls toilets in one of the cubicles.

Harry noticed that all of the Death Eaters that the Weasley's had been fighting suddenly went still; they were only a floor above. "It might be an idea to get to your family Ron; we can split into two groups then and get everyone to safety quicker." Ron nodded.

"And look," said Ernie, "that's Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, there are Death Eaters heading their way." Harry crooked his neck looking over at them on the map. Ernie was right; on the same floor as the young girl there was a small group of Death Eaters heading towards Neville and Luna.

"Ok, let's go." Said Harry. "We go find the Weasley's, grab Neville and Luna and then go to the girls bathroom, we'll split into two groups after that, one can go and get McGonagall and Hagrid and then head down and start to help everyone else out, the other group can head straight down. We avoid large groups rather than fight them, and take out individual Death Eaters if the opportunity presents itself. You all ready?" They all nodded. "Then let's go."

**A/N: Bit of a cliff hanger, this chapter was just too long, I had to end it somewhere. I hope you enjoy it, and please review, it's ever so nice. Thanks a lot. **


	12. You Don’t Know What You’ve Got

**You Don't Know What You've Got 'Till It's Gone**

There was a Death Eater around the corner. There was a student with him; Colin Creevey, Harry could hear his screams. He turned into the corridor, staying low, and fired a spell at the offender, it struck him squarely in the chest and he keeled over backwards. It was quick, it was efficient, and it was immensely satisfying.

Harry and his friends were on the fifth floor, only a few twists and turns away from the Weasley family, who, by the look of the Marauders Map, were engaged in heavy fighting. They had met no opposition until now, they had been skirting the fighting, finding the quickest routes through the castle, rather than look for a scuffle.

Colin lay clutching his chest and coughing, trying to draw in a breath that he did not have. Each wheeze seemed to cause him immense pain. Harry knelt by his side and leaned down to his face.

"H-Harry… Harry… I…" Colin drew in another painful, rasping breath. "They took… I t-tried, Harry… I tried… But… I couldn't… I." His voice was panicked, his eyes wild, tears streamed down his face.

"It's ok Colin, you'll be ok, just…" Colin's shaking was beginning to subside and his eyes were loosing focus. "Colin? Colin, please, please… Don't..."

"Sorry… Harry… So-Sorry… Ginny…"

Harry's friends were stood in a half circle around Colin's feet looking down, but Harry could not manage to draw any strength from them. Colin had confirmed that, as much as Harry had hoped she had got away, Ginny had been captured, taken by Voldemort, everything Harry had done, as hard as he had tried, to keep Ginny safe, had failed, and it was his fault. Knowing that it was the only thing he could do, Harry said, "don't worry Colin, you did great, Ginny's s-safe, you saved her." It was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do.

Colin focused a little better on Harry's face and a small smile started to form on him lips when his body went slack and the light left his eyes. Harry sat back on his heels and stared down at Colin. With tears leaking down his cheeks he closed Colin's eyes so that he looked peaceful, with a small smile. Colin had always had a good heart, he had been annoying at times, but he had always been energetic and enthusiastic, and Harry had liked him.

Harry dashed the tears off of his face and stood. His sadness at loosing another friend was rapidly being overruled and beaten down by the rage well up in his chest. He drew his wand again and bound the Death Eater who was stunned not far away.

"Come on." He said harshly. "We've got to save as many people as we can." He strode off towards the Weasley's with the bound Death Eater being dragged by the cords around him. Ron reached down, lifted Colin and carried him. "Can't just leave him here." He muttered darkly.

Harry did not notice the corridors he was walking through or the sound of footsteps from his friends, but he burst through a door into the middle of fierce fighting, ready and willing to join in. The corridor was alive with flashing lights, bursts of darkness, screams, shouts, and cries. Mr Weasley was fighting a Death Eater to Harry's right and Bill was being hard pressed by two, farther down the corridor. Charlie had discarded his wand and was rolling around on the floor with a man, punching and kicking him at any and every opportunity. But it was Fred and George who were in the most trouble. They were to Harry's left and were blocking the corridor to seven people. They were ducked down behind a couple of suits of armour, one on either side of the hall way, and they were dodging out to shoot spells or throw small vials that exploded with peculiar colours where they struck, one man had a purple vial break at his feet and he collapsed in seconds. Harry charged past Charlie and ran straight in between Fred and George towards the Death Eaters, eager for a fight, and not caring that he was out numbered.

A pulsing purple spell shot towards him and he stopped and yelled, "_Protego._" The spell bounced off and struck the corner where the wall met the ceiling. Part of the corridor came crashing down, crushing an enemy beneath the rubble. Four more spells quickly followed the first, but with another shield charm Harry deflected them all. Harry then realised what a stupid thing he had done by running head first into this many Death Eaters, but luckily for him, he had become enough of a distraction for the twins to stun a Death Eater each. They leapt out from their hiding places as an explosion in the bowels of the castle rocked them all. Harry lost his footing and fell to the ground. He rolled over and whipped his wand around to point it back to the two remaining Death Eaters but all he saw was red before a spell hit him.

The next Harry remembered was one of the twins' faces in front of his. He shook his head and used the hand that was extended towards him to help him to his feet.

Fred shook his head in admiration. "You are one crazy wizard Harry." He said.

"Yeah, come on." Smiled George. "Let's go find someone else to let Harry loose on."

They incarcerated the fallen Death Eaters and dragged them back up the corridor a little way, controlling them with their wands, to join every one else. It looked like Ron was trying to convince the rest of his family to go along with the plan they had come up with but they did not like it.

"- can't lose Hogwarts." Harry heard Bill say.

"Hogwarts is lost." Said Harry harshly, drawing attention away from Ron. He drew the Map from Ron's back pocket and opened it to show everyone.

"The Marauder's Map!" Exclaimed the twins together. "Excellent."

"Perfect piece of equipment in a pickle like this." Followed one of them jovially.

"This shows everyone in the castle." Harry told the Weasley's who did not know what they were looking at. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out that we've lost. The only thing we can do now is get as many people safe as possible. We need to go up a floor and help Neville and Luna and then get this first year out of the toilet, then we'll take these Death Eaters to McGonagall's office and help her out, she's pinned down, we'll figure out what's next once we get there. Let's go." He put the Map in Mr Weasley's hand and before waiting for agreement he pushed through between Bill and Charlie and strode up the corridor. There was no choice but to follow him. He head Mr Weasley ask Ron quietly behind whether he, Harry, was ok.

"Dad." He heard quietly. "Dad… You Know Who's got Ginny."

"NO!" Mr Weasley had stopped and stared in disbelief at Ron. "No!" He repeated.

Ron nodded sadly, unable to quite meet his father's eyes. "Colin," he said indicating the body he was still carrying, "was trying to get her out of the castle… He failed."

Harry stopped and turned to half face everyone else, every one of the Weasley men looked shocked, dismayed, and grief stricken and Harry felt completely responsible. He was utterly guilt ridden.

"But Charlie…" Said George looking accusingly at his brother.

"I…I didn't recognise him." Said Charlie taking a closer, horrified look at Colin. "I only saw him for a second. I swear… I swear I got them safely into the secret passage like I said. I-I thought they'd be safe from there. There were meant to be Aurors on the other side."

"But we found Colin not a floor away from here." Piped in Ernie unhelpfully.

Harry, though ridden with guilt and anguish, knew that they had to keep going. "He probably came back to find someone after Ginny was taken, and Voldemort will know where all the secret passageways are. We need to go; there are other people we _can_ help." Again without waiting for a reply, Harry turned and leapt up the nearby stairwell three at a time.

Harry could feel the blood pumping in his veins as he neared Neville and Luna, he could hear the fight and could not wait to get there to release some of his anger, but it was so strong he did not think it would ever truly leave him. Charlie caught up with him just before he turned the corner and joined the fray. He caught Harry's arm and waved his wand in his face. "For the burn." He said simply hardly noticing that he had been in pain, or that he still had shards of glass in his back. Harry nodded once, he was quite sure that Charlie felt just as guilty as Harry himself and perhaps just as angry. What ever Charlie was feeling it caused him to fight like an enraged Manticore. The two of them took down the three offending Death Eaters in a heart beat. They were tied up an instant later.

Harry helped Luna to her feet. She looked a little bedraggled, her face was smudged with dirt and her hair was poking up in odd places. "Thank you very much Harry," she said calmly.

As soon as Harry saw the others approaching, he and Charlie set off towards the girls' bathroom, actually hoping they would find more Death Eaters along the way. But he had no such luck. As he entered the toilet he heard muffled sobs from the end cubicle and headed down to that end. As he opened the door he heard. "_F-Furnunculus_." He dodged to the side and the spell zipped through the space next to his head. "It's ok." He shouted. "We're here to_ help _you."

"Harry." Said Parvati sharply from behind him as she walked into the bathroom with everyone else. "Don't say it like that. You'll scare her." She passed him and sat on the toilet seat next to the girl and pulled her into a hug. "Don't you worry bout him. You're safe now. What's your name?" Harry realised that with the glare he had on his face he probably did look a little intimidating, the others were flicking their wands and moving the unconscious Death Eaters up against a wall underneath a row of sinks, out of the way.

"Natalie… Did you call him Harry?" Whispered the girl to Parvati. She nodded in return. "Harry Potter?" Another nod. The girl left Parvati's arms and leapt to Harry where she threw her arms around his stomach and sobbed into his chest. He awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, looking around for inspiration. Parvati looked disgruntled, and most of the others thought that this would be an excellent moment to move away and scan the Marauders Map leaving him to fend for himself. "I-I'm s-sorry," she sobbed. "I-I ran aw-w-way, there were m-men all ar-round… and they were sh-shooting sp-spells all over, and P-P-Proffessor Fli-itwick told us to keep going while h-he fought but I-I ran away."

"Er, it's ok." He patted her shoulder again. He managed to extract himself from her embrace but she caught hold of his hand and wouldn't let go, so he walked over to the counsel around the map with a new friend. The map was spread out on the floor and the men were kneeling next to it watching the black dots move around and, every so often, wink out.

"The Auror's have arrived back with Tonks and Filch." Informed Ron. "They're coming in through the fourth floor mirror and the Whomping Willow. Death Eaters seem to be heading towards McGongall."

"We should help McGonagall and Hagrid and then join the Aurors." Said Mr Weasley.

"What about Ginny?" Fred asked his dad.

"How are we going to get her back?" Asked the other twin.

Harry had only seen Mr Weasley look older and sadder than he did at this moment: when he had thought that Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets and killed by the heir of Slytherin.

"Boys." He said slowly sitting back against a sink. "For now we have to think about saving everyone that we _can_ save and that includes everyone standing here. We will get Ginny back, we will, but right now we need to make sure that no one else loses a daughter, or a sister."

His response was meant with silence. All of the Weasley men knew that he had spoken the truth but did not want to believe it and each one was fighting his own personal battle. Everyone else felt like an outsider into a family's sorrow.

"We should split up." Said Harry eventually. He had done a scan of everyone here and decided who he thought should be in each group. "I'll go, with Ron, Fred, and George, to get McGonagall –"

Harry's idea was not popular, Bill, Mr Weasley and Charlie all protested. "We should stay together." "It's not safe." "Only four of you." "What about us?" Cried Neville indignantly.

Harry held up his free hand, irritated. "The four of us have had this map for years." He said to Mr Weasley. "We know more of the secret corridors than anyone, even Filch. We can find our way quicker to any part of the castle than anyone else."

"I've got a couple of things we can use to take out big groups of Death Eaters." Encouraged Ron.

"And once we've done that McGonagall and Hagrid will make us six, that's better than four, right? Afterwards we'll head down and exit through the dungeon, and get anyone from the Order we find to safety. The rest of you take the map and the captured Death Eaters and Natalie and… and Colin. Get them out and then help everyone else."

"We should stay together." Said Mr Weasley.

"If we split up we can help more people."

"If you all get killed because there weren't enough of you, you won't help anyone." Harry noticed Justin turning slightly paler.

He knew that that made sense, but he did not want to listen to sense. He wanted to save his friends. After a long pause where he watched a couple more black dots on the map, names that he did not recognise but who he knew were fighting Death Eaters, wink out, he looked up. "You can do what you want… But I'm going to help Hagrid." He stood up and remembered that Natalie was still holding onto his hand. He looked up to Parvati and asked slowly. "Would you mind getting Natalie to safety?" Parvati glanced at Natalie and then to the map, drawing her lip through her teeth. She nodded. "There is a secret passage way out of the school just back around the corner; there is a portrait of lady in bright pink robes hiding behind a rose bush. Tap it and say _Expositus_ and she'll pull back the bush to reveal a hole you two can slide down. Once you're away from the school you can Apparate to the Ministry." He looked around. If anyone else wants to leave, now is the time to do it. There's no shame in it, there's no need to risk your necks." The Weasley's all looked aghast at the suggestion but Ernie and Justin both gave each other a worried look. Harry looked at them both pointedly. "You don't need to stay." He said. "You could take Colin back with Parvati and Natalie. And the captured Death Eaters, you'd still be doing a massive part to help." They again gave each other a questioning look. And then nodded.

Harry did not wait to see what anyone else would do. He strode out of the bathroom, his wand clenched tightly in his hand and before he knew it he was two corridors away from the stone gargoyle with all of the Weasley's, Neville and Luna. They ran stealthily from one hiding place to the next, trying to get as close as they could with out being seen.

There was no noise, no sound of battle or shouts from the injured, the Map showed that everyone was perfectly still; it all boded badly in Harry's opinion. When they reached the end of the corridor Harry was unsurprisingly confused. The combatants stood stock still, some with incantations half pronounced, giving their faces looks that would have been incredibly amusing in other circumstances, others had spells already cast but they were frozen as they were flying through the air. McGonagall and Hagrid were there, by the gargoyle, Hagrid's pink umbrella was pointed at the closest Death Eater but McGonagall's was pointed into the air.

"Do you think she cast a spell to freeze everyone?" Asked Ron.

"I don't know." Replied Harry, confused. "Why would she trap herself too?"

"I don't know."

They all stood, looking confused and unsure of what to do.

"Do you think the spell would trap anyone else that went to close?" Asked George.

"Let's find out." Replied Fred. He drew his wand and sent a stunner at one of the Death Eaters, before it reached him in quite suddenly stopped, suspended by an invisible force in the air. "I would say… Yes." Said Fred.

"What do we do?" Charlie asked his father.

"I'm not too sure," he said, "I've never seen anything like this. I think we may have to leave them. They're safe while the spell lasts, as far as I can tell, but I don't know what we can do for them."

Luna was inspecting the spell that Fred had cast towards the Death Eaters. She pointed her own wand at one of them and sent a stunner his way. She then moved onto the next. She smiled dolefully fifteen stunners later. "It's a shame I won't be able to see what happens when the spell's taken off." She sighed.

Bill raised his scared face from the Map and swore. "There are Death Eaters heading this way." He said.

"How many?" Asked Ron.

"Too many." Was all Bill could say in return.

"Then let's go." Said Mr Weasley. "We'll head to the dungeon exit." They began to walk.

"We can take the twirling staircase its not far." Said Ron.

"Isn't it a Sunday?" Asked George.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well it only goes upwards on a Sunday."

"It doesn't matter." Said Harry. "Let's just go help some friends and capture some Death Eaters."

******A/N : It's been a long time since my last update and I feel ashamed of myself lol. But please review, let me know what you all think, I'd like pointers on how to improve, not so much spelling corrections (although they are quite handy) but techniques ect. Thanks a lot, hope you enojoy reading. **


	13. It is Handy Having a Curse Breaker

**It is Handy Having a Curse Breaker in the Family**

Exhaustion was slowly gripping Harry's body. He was as aware as possible in his fatigued mind that he had not slept or eaten for a very long time. He felt as though he was missing his glasses, even though, no matter how many times he checked, they were still firmly fixed to his face, everything was blurred through weariness, his vision swam slightly. Harry found that his coordination was awful, his balance abysmal and his judgement atrocious. He was fighting on empty. Pushed on by anger, resolve, and a fierce determination, Harry dodged a stray curse and fired back a hex.

He was in a hefty group of people down in the bowels of the castle. The crowd had been joined by students who had chosen to fight, members of the Order of the Phoenix, and Aurors who had lost the rest of their group. Having such a large group of people was not a benefit, it merely drew more resistance. In a slightly ironic way, the more people he tried to help, the greater danger he left them in. As tired as Harry was, he found this incredibly funny.

They had descended through the castle - after having left Hagrid and McGonagall – going out of their way to help stranded allies or to capture lone enemies. They once again had a collection of bound and unconscious Death Eaters bouncing along behind them.

The Map had shown the main force of Aurors heading this way, and Mr Weasley had been eager to meet up with them, but Voldemorts supporters had attacked, Harry and his friends had known they would. They had seen them approaching… But there was no way to circumvent them.

So Harry enchanted the next Death Eater he saw trying to free the ones already captured, into a deep sleep, and then ducked as a retaliatory jet of green shot from one of the mans collaborators. They were caught in the middle of two forces of seemingly infinite Death Eaters, in a corridor with no secret passages or quick escape routes all they could do was fight. And to Harry it felt like it was killing him. As much adrenaline as he had in his system, sometimes it is not enough.

Just as Harry began to seriously consider lying down, the Death Eaters turned and fled. Turning around Harry saw the Aurors join in down the corridor. Harry shot a few spells at the backs of the fleeing Death Eaters and then retreated to the front behind him where the Death Eaters were fighting with wild abandon, trying to break through Harry's group to escape from the Aurors inexorably crushing their resistance.

Filch had apparently followed the Aurors through the castle, presumably to point out faster routes and hide-a-ways. At some point he had found Mrs Norris, who in the midst of the fighting escaped her master. She streaked along amongst the struggle with Filch dodging after her as fast as his aching body could take him. Harry was looking straight at them as two spells met in the air, and one of them shot off at a tangent towards the cat. Filch saw it too. With a rasping cry he managed to pick her up where he ducked and cowered. But the spell never hit him. It bounced away off of an invisible barrier. Filch poked his head out of his arms with a look of shock on his face, that quickly turned to insatiable joy. "I did magic." Harry just heard over the sounds of battle. Filch dropped his cat, reached into the sulphur smelling air and laughed a blissful cackle, whilst doing a little jig and crying. "I did magic."

With his face turned to the heavens he did not see the killing curse that was rushing, towards his back, to take his life. He died with a look of pure elation on his face, knowing that the thing that he had always wished for… Had come true.

The Death Eaters took down many defenders before the Aurors overwhelmed them, but overwhelmed they were, and Filch and one Auror had been the only fatalities. But some had been hurt… Badly. Two more Aurors were lying on the floor being treated by their colleagues and the five, sixth year students, that had been rescued on Harry's slog through the castle were unconscious, being looked at by more Aurors. But the most worrying thing to Harry was that Fred and George were hunched over Charlie feeding him bits of purple chews. He rushed over and so did the rest of the Weasley's and Tonks. Bill waved his wand and a sickly yellow cloud of mist lifted from Charlie's chest, where his robes were tattered, revealing a large laceration. He was gasping for air and although the wound did not look like it was bleeding (no doubt due to the twins snack box ingredients) it was most certainly only the most insubstantial damage done to Charlie.

"There's a curse been left here," said Bill, he looked worried. "It's going to take a while to get it off though. How you feeling?"

Charlie's face looked a little panicked and he struggled to get any words out past the gasping. Harry took a quick look around, the five students were on their feet – nothing serious there – one Auror was being supported and the other was still on the floor being tended to.

Ron swore loudly. "Those Death Eaters who ran away are coming back with reinforcements," he informed.

Tonks conjured up a stretcher. "Get him on," she said. "We can treat him while we get out. She hopped off to warn the two dozen or so Aurors to get ready for anther fight. It was then that Harry realised that the Aurors were in a pretty bad shape, very few were without injury of some kind. Many were holding an arm close to their chests, limping along, or sporting dried blood somewhere. There was a woman who ticked all three. Lupin took Tonks' place by Harry; he looked awful, battered, bruised and bleeding. A flicker of pain kicked Harry in the back and he knew that he did not look much better.

"Here," said George, handing the older man a purple stick. Lupin ate it and smiled gratefully as the bleeding from his scalp stopped.

"Come on Harry, let's go and head off the Death Eaters. We need to let the injured escape."

The fit and able, moved to a position where they could intercept the next attack and everyone else helped each other to begin moving, or levitating the captives, away. Fred and George each had hold of one end of their stretcher and Mr Weasley and Bill were casting what spells they could to try and heal Charlie. The Death Eaters came into view just as they were passing round a corner. The first Death Eater to appear was flat on his back in an instant. The second cried out in pain when some spell of Lupin's hit him, and fell down to be ignored writhing on the ground.

On the whole, the retreat back to the dungeons exit went well. Harry was holding Tonks up by the time they got there but by and large they were in good condition.

Once Harry had helped Tonks into the secret passage, and they were walking away he knew that they were out. They had escaped. But at a great cost… One that Harry had never been prepared to pay.

The Atrium at the Ministry of Magic was a mass of injured men and women, healers running round to help them, and ministry workers either helping, or standing around wide eyed and pointing. More Aurors than not were injured, but the healthy ones made sure that the Death Eaters who had been captured were secure. Voldemort had been suspected of having approximately eighty Death Eaters. They had captured forty, but forty had been far fewer than half of the force that had attacked Hogwarts… Far fewer. Harry heard one of the Ministry officials rejoicing, stating that he believed that with so many captured, the end of the war was just around the corner. Harry had felt like laughing in his face, but he did not have the energy.

It was organised chaos. Students had begun to arrive well before dawn and it was now just passing noon, there were portkeys to take the seriously injured to St. Mungo's and selected people were directing and guiding so that the needy could be seen to more promptly. The Hogwarts house elves were all here, they were charging around carrying bandages and potions.

The Aurors had suffered losses, the Order had suffered losses, and students had lost their lives too. Many parents were there in the Atrium, having heard what had happened, and were crying out for their children, or weeping over their bodies.

To Harry, this was a worse sight than anything he had seen at Hogwarts and he could not stand it. He found Ron who was with the rest of his family waiting for a portkey whilst a healer and Bill were working on Charlie's chest, who was now unconscious. The Weasley men all looked fearful.

"He's going to be ok, right?" asked Harry.

The brothers all looked to Mr Weasley, who turned to Harry sadly. "We just don't know Harry, it's taking longer than we thought to get the curse off and Charlie has to hold on until we do." He turned back to his son as a portkey was carried up by a harassed looking Ministry employee. When they looked up to him, he froze, so did they.

"Charlie?" he asked horror-struck.

"Percy?" the Weasley's chorused. He stood unable to move, with the portkey.

"Come on Percy," said Mr Weasley. "The portkey."

He thawed instantly and handed over the frayed sock.

"I'm going to go back and check on Hermione," said Harry. "I'll meet you at St. Mungos."

Ron looked torn, Harry knew that he wanted to see Hermione, but he did not want to leave his Charlie. "I'll bring Hermione back with me," said Harry.

Ron nodded and reached down to touch the portkey with the others.

"Why don't you come too Percy?" asked Mr Weasley. "I think he'd want you to." Percy cast his frightened gaze up to his father and nodded. They were whisked away and Harry disappeared with a pop to arrive in his living room.

Going from the startling cacophony of the Ministry Atrium, to the silent, safe place that was his home, brought all that had happened in the past day to the fore in Harry's mind. He was tired, all he wanted to do was sleep, and he was emotionally spent, he had been so angry, and he was full of regret, and guilt, and more than anything he wanted to run away from it for a while, he wanted to go and lie down on his bed and forget about the attack, and about Ginny being taken. But he walked past the door to his room and his waiting bed, and instead knocked gently on Hermione's door, not certain as to whether she would be awake. The door flew open not a second later, to reveal a very much awake, and a very much distraught, Hermione. Her eyes were blood shot and red and her hair was even bushier than normal. She flung her arms around his waist with a strangled cry and he flinched as she pressed her hands against his back. She pulled back slowly her eyes questioning, and she withdrew her hands and looked down at them, stained dark red with crusted blood. She looked back up at him horrified.

"It's nothing," he tried to shrug it off. But Hermione spun him round and gasped.

She pushed him into the bathroom, sat him down on the edge of the bath and pulled open the cabinet above the sink to rummage around. She returned to sit next to him, with bandages and a couple of vials of yellow liquid, and peeled his t-shirt and jumper off over his head, his cloak had been lost at some point, he could not remember when. His t-shirt caught on the cuts on his back and tugged at the tiny fragments of glass still rooted there making him flinch. "Harry what happened? Where's Ron?" she asked.

That simple question, 'What happened?' tipped Harry over the edge and a sob escaped his lips, Hermione put her arms gently around him, carefully placing her hands, and looking close to tears herself, and he was instantly weeping onto her shoulder.

Harry could not remember the last time he had cried like this; the last time he had let anyone see him in a similar state. But he could not stop, and did not want to. It was such a relief to him, to be able to let his pain out. Slowly Harry's eyes stopped their leaking, and he leaned back away drying his eyes. "Sorry," he murmured.

"What are friends for?" she asked with a weak smile. "Is Ron ok?" He could tell that she had been holding that question in, not wanting to interrupt his outburst.

He sniffed and nodded. "He's fine. He's at St. Mungo's with his brothers, Charlie was hurt." He turned away a little and wiped his face. "Voldemort got Ginny."

Hermione scrunched her face up. "No!" She gasped.

Harry nodded miserably. "The attack came last night, not Monday. We tried to hold them off while the students escaped… we fought, Voldemort and I, our wands caused an explosion, the glass in my back… I landed on the Hufflepuff point glass. We tried," he choked, "we tried to save as many people as we could, but he got her."

They sat in silence for what felt like hours, before Hermione began to gently bathe the cuts on Harry's back. It hurt, he grimaced and set his jaw and put up with it, but it hurt something fierce. He swore loudly as a particularly profound edge dug deeper.

"I'm sorry Harry." She returned her treatments to the bottom of the bath and got up. She fussed with her hair and suggested that they go to St. Mungo's to get his back seen to.

"Yeah, I only came home to check on you, and bring you back."

She nodded and disappeared from the room, to return a moment later with one of Dudley's old t-shirts. Harry carefully put it on and they Apparated to the hospital.

Charlie had been moved to a room on the forth floor where Bill and two healers were attempting to save him. The rest of the Weasley's had been made to wait outside. When they found the red heads Hermione went straight to Ron and hugged him.

"How's Charlie?" Harry asked Mr Weasley. Harry could not believe how calm Mr Weasley looked. His only daughter had been captured by Voldemort, and one of his sons was on the brink of death by the hand of one of Voldemort's followers, and yet he sat cleaning his glasses looking for all the world as though he were sitting in his arm chair at home.

"The curse is still upon him, but I've no doubt that Bill will get it off," Mr smiled a sad, proud smile. "Bill won't let his brother die."

The door opened and a young healer came out shaking his head and closing the door quickly behind him. "I'm no use," he admitted to himself out loud, "I cannot understand even half of what that man's brother is doing. Curse breaker he says… ah well." He looked up at the people waiting seemingly noticing them for the first time. "A relative of yours?" he asked. The Weasley's nodded. "Yes, yes… Well, are any of you injured? I'd be more than happy to help while you're waiting." He seemed a little excited, in an over active fidgety way that did not advocate confidence

"Yes," said Hermione, he hurried over to her. "No not me," she pointed towards Harry, "Harry's hurt his back."

"Right, right," said the healer as he moved closer, "well then let's –" he stopped with his mouth agape, "_Harry Potter!_" He was instantly right in front of Harry, pumping away at his hand. "So very good to meet you, so very good, I cannot believe I'm shaking your hand, so pleased. Come, sit; let me tend your back." He manoeuvred Harry to a seat in a blink. "Well, take of your t-shirt, I can't very well see what's wrong while it's on."

Feeling slightly nervous at being healed by such a jittery person Harry carefully pulled off his top.

"Ooh," said the healer with an intake of his breath. "Yes, yes, you'll have some nasty scars I should think… Still." There was a pause before, in a shock of hurt, Harry opened his eyes wide, gasped, and felt each and every last bit of glass extricated from his back but a second later he felt the wounds sew tightly shut and for the first time in hours and hours he was pain free. With a sigh of relief he slumped forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"There," said the healer, "like I said, there will be some scarring, but it's all healed up."

"Thank you," said Harry, he reached for his t-shirt and put it back on. He sat back and closed his eyes to wait, and in seconds found himself beginning to drift off to sleep as his exhaustion crept up, and a tingle start to nag at him in his scar.

A thunderous, relieved and exuberant shout rang out from Charlie's room bringing Harry back to the present, followed by a, "YES!"

Everyone stood up and Bill yanked open the door from the other side, his scarred countenance twisted grotesquely into a grin. "We did it!" he yelled. "He's going to be fine."

A palpable sense of relief swept through the room and as though he had been waiting for this moment, Mr Weasley turned to the twins. "Fred, George, why don't you go and find Molly, she's here somewhere in the hospital helping out. We'll wait for you in Charlie's room where we can… explain things to her."

Fred and George nodded seriously and leapt off to find Mrs Weasley.

**A/N : Next up, time to get Ginny back. What does everyone think??? I was a bit uneasy about how in character my writing keeps everyone; could someone let me know what they think??? Thanks.**


	14. He Knows It Not

**He Knows It Not**

Harry sat on his sofa staring at the flames in the fire place, and fiddling with Slytherin's locket, his mind wandered round in circles, going from thoughts of the battle, to Ginny, to Voldemort, to the explosion that had rocked the castle when their wands had connected, back to the battle. He was trying to come up with a way to save Ginny, but as tired as he was it was incredibly hard to concentrate. He kept thinking of the problem, and could not manage to focus on the solution.

Ron sat at the kitchen table asleep, with his head on his hands and drooling from the corner of his mouth. Hermione was making a cup of tea. Harry heard her wake Ron up slowly. "You should go up to bed," he heard her say, "you haven't slept since last night, you need some sleep."

"No!" said Ron drowsily, "I can't go to bed until I've figured out how to get Ginny back." Harry turned round, drawing his eyes away from the flames, to watch.

"You're not going to figure anything out while you're tired, you might as well go to bed, and then tomorrow, when you're feeling fresh, you can figure something out." Hermione perched on the chair next to Ron. She gave him a sad smile and took his hand in one of hers, the other wrapped securely around a hot mug of steaming tea. "Come on. Let's go up to bed." She stood and took his hand with her. Too tired to argue and too saddened to care, Ron followed.

"You should really go to bed too Harry," Hermione reprimanded as she guided Ron past him by his hand.

He nodded slowly but only turned back to the fire. Once his friends had gone up the stairs to the bedroom that they were now sharing, he slowly leant forward and put his face in his hands, rubbing his prickling scar, the horror stricken face of Mrs Weasley, when she had been told that Ginny was missing, swam in and out of his vision, followed by her howls of grief and anguish, and Harry dreaded going up to his bed, knowing that his nightmares would be full of worse terrors.

He gritted his teeth and stood up on wobbly legs that carried him up to his room.

Harry stood in a long room, dank and dark; he could hear the drip-drip from moist walls and smell the decay of something long dead. The murky light that he could just see by seemed to have no origin but instead permeated the pillars and the large statue that presided over the chamber on the far wall.

Harry breathed in deeply, savouring the smell as though it were a favourite flower that he had not come across for a long time, _what a strange thought_, he felt himself think. But he breathed in once more and darted his tongue out across his lips, able to taste the fetid air and finding it quite to his liking. He was aware that he was wandering back and forward by the door, carelessly glancing at this most wondrous of places. He ran a long finger across a small trickle of water that ran down the wall from the end of a pipe, to a drain in the floor.

"I very much appreciate these you know," came a cold voice from his mouth, directed towards the far end of the room where the statue rose up. He did not speak loudly, it was on the quiet side even, but he did not have to, whoever needed to hear him, _would_ hear him. "These drains are useful… They siphon the blood away." He paused for effect and then laughed quietly. "Perhaps, by morning, we will see your blood flowing… hear it dripping down this hole… smell it on the air… taste the metallic explosion on our tongues… feel it through our fingers." He turned and began to walk slowly, elegantly, his long legs bearing him sinuously to his goal. "Would you like tha-" he stopped suddenly and widened his eyes with an eagerness that he did not understand.

"Ahhhhh," Harry purred in delicious satisfaction. He continued to pace slowly towards the statue, and a huddled form betwixt its feet.

Harry could make out a girl there, laying on her front with one arm underneath her body; her face was turned towards him, but was covered with a cascading waterfall of rose red ringlets. Her robes were ripped, torn, unravelled, she was left with tatters to cover her, what she wore under her robes was sliced; through a gash in the fabric of a knitted jumper covering her left arm he could see blood; across the back of her right leg a cut had been made through her jeans, staining them red. Harry crouched down next to the young woman. She let a small sound escape her lips, through fear, anticipation, panic… It was delightful.

He lithely reached out a finger and pulled back a lock of hair, almost lovingly, to reveal the terrorised eyes of his captive. "We have been joined by a guest," he revealed excitedly. "I am hoping that he will enjoy the games we will play tonight. I know that I shall. Your screams will keep me thoroughly entertained I am sure," he hissed. "Tell me… are you ready Ginny…"

"No," whispered Weasley raggedly. "Please."

Suddenly Harry felt something powerful inside of him and his body arched as though a scream had barely been contained by his lips… but he felt no pain. It was gone in an instant. He must have imagined it.

Harry raised his wand. "_Crucio_!"

Ginny Weasley contorted on the floor, she rolled onto her back, spasms rocked her body and convulsions raked through her. Her screams were torn from her throat and were magnified by the echo of the chamber. The curse stopped abruptly as he felt, yet again, something powerful and foreign inside of him, swelling under the surface, and then it erupted, and Harry felt himself drop to his knees as though he were in someone else's body, his wand dropped to the floor, his head turned upwards, and he screamed, yet he felt no pain.

With a gut wrenching shift of perception, and the feeling that something was fleeing, Harry became aware, for the first time, of himself, he knew where he was, he knew that at this moment his body was asleep in Godric's Hollow in his bed, he knew that he was having a vision – the like of which he had not had for well over a year -, he knew that he had taken control of Voldemorts body, and he knew, with one look at Ginny, that this power that he felt, roaring, in his chest could take on the world… and would win.

Harry stood up in Voldemorts body, he moved towards Ginny but she scooted back away from him.

"Ginny it's ok," Harry tried to explain, his voice still unnaturally high pitched and cold. "It's me, Harry, I don't know what's going on but I've taken control of Voldemorts body, come on, we need to go, quickly."

Her eyes filled with a scantily held hope and she moved back slowly towards him.

"Give me my wand," she demanded. "In your pocket." He fished it out for her. "You can Apparate in here," she said suddenly once she had her wand, her voice sounded like it was being dragged across gravel. "The wards don't reach down this far."

He nodded once, stepped forward and grabbed her hand and popped away. They appeared along the path between Hogwarts and Hogsmead. The sky was cloudless and starry, the night was cold.

"Wait here," said Harry, a feeling of dread creeping up from inside of him. "I'll come for you." Before Ginny could say anything in return, Harry Apparated Voldemorts body back into the Chamber of Secrets.

As soon as Ginny was out of his sight Harry concentrated on Voldemort and in an instant he was back in control. With a primeval cry of rage that he felt barge through him, Harry was forced from Voldemorts mind.

Harry sat bolt upright in his bed, his scar seared with pain; he threw back his covers and had Apparated before his feet touched the floor. Ginny was standing almost exactly where he had left her looking petrified.

"Harry!" she cried when she saw him. She flung herself into his arms.

They both heard the CRACK that came from their left. There was Voldemort in a towering fury, he whipped his wand towards them and cried, "_Avada Kedavra_."

Harry never knew what the spell hit because he had closed his eyes and disappeared an instant before the spell had reached them.

Harry had Apparated them to the Shrieking Shack. "Dobby!" he yelled. "Dobby I need you." The house elf appeared with a small pop and a wide eyed look of anticipation.

"Yes sir, what does Harry Potter need Dobby to do sir?" He piped.

"I need you to tell Ginny where I'm living. Quickly." Ginny's fearful eyes darted from one dark corner to another. Harry too did not feel safe. Dobby quickly reeled off Harry's address.

"Thank you." He said hastily. He tightened his hold on Ginny and Disapparated, reappearing in his bedroom. He let out a sigh of relief. "It's ok now, you're safe."

Ginny stood stunned for only an instant and burst into hysterical sobs, she clung to him fiercely, crying into his shoulder with panicked whimpers, trying to create as much bodily contact as possible, trying to get as much reassurance from him as she could. Her muscles would tense as though ready to flee at any moment, and then she would buckle as though about to collapse before tensing again. Unsure of how to comfort her best Harry only held her and stroked her hair. His scar throbbed, giving him a huge headache, but it did not mean anything to him, his anguish at seeing Ginny so vulnerable let him ignore it.

"It's ok Ginny; you're safe now… it's ok." He kept saying over and over. "It's ok."

With panic still lacing her voice, she said, "Harry…" She gasped for breath. "I-I… was s-scared… so-so-so scared…" His heart felt like it was shattering as she returned to howling into his shoulder, trying to release all of the pain inside of her.

With a bang the door slammed open and Ron and Hermione stepped into the room with their wands drawn. Ginny spun round and pressed backwards into Harry like a child would try to hide in a parents embrace, then she saw who it was, and with a strangled cry she leapt forwards. Ron threw his wand aside and met her in the middle, pulling her into a tight hug. "Ginny." he said in disbelief.

It was only then, once he had lost contact with Ginny, that Harry realised how shattered he was, he felt weak, and his head pounded behind his scar. He sat on the edge of his bed and fingered his temples.

"You're hurt." He heard Hermione say. She waved her wand and fixed up her cuts and bruises, proficiently. With all of the work they had done on the house, they had had accidents, and all three of them were now capable of healing minor scrapes.

"Thank you," she croaked stepping away from Ron. "Now if only you could do something for these aches." A small smile played on her lips for the first time. Harry could not help but smiled back.

"Actually I can," said Hermione, her face deadly serious. She dodged out of the room, her dressing gown billowing as she swept through the door, and returned seconds later with the glass orb that Harry had bought her for her birthday. "Here, hold this." Hermione instructed.

Ginny's face softened into an almost peacefully calm expression. "Oh wow!" she said, softly, her eyes closing. She moved to the bed next to Harry and delicately sat down next to him.

"It's nice isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"Mmm…" Ginny murmured, she lay back on the bed, with her legs dangling over the side, completely relaxed.

Hermione drew the chair out from the desk and sat. "What happened?" she asked carefully. "How did you escape?"

"Harry saved me," she whispered hoarsely.

Hermione directed her questioning gaze to him instead. He looked away.

"I don't know exactly." He answered her. "I think that somehow I… I took control of Voldemort's body."

Silence permeated the room for a moment. "But…" Hermione began, "but… how?"

Harry chewed his lip thoughtfully… then shrugged. "I don't know."

No one said anything for a long time, and Ginny's breathing slowed and became deep and rhythmic.

"I'm going to go and write a letter to mum. She'll want to know Ginny's safe." Said Ron, walking quietly out of the room. Hermione stood up to follow.

"How about we wait until tomorrow?" she reasoned. "We can go in person then, I'm sure she'd appreciate that more."

Ron thought for a second. "Yeah… Yeah I suppose you're right."

"Let's go back to bed. We can catch up on some well earned sleep and sort things out in the morning."

Ron smiled and nodded and led the way to their bedroom. Harry sat watching Ginny for a minute and then rose to leave her to her rest; he could stay in Ron's old room tonight.

"Harry!" Ginny gasped, her eyes wide. "Please, please don't leave me." The look of fear, which had slowly been washed from her face since he had brought her to Godric's Hollow, returned instantaneously. She sat up and grabbed his hand in a death grip.

He sat back down quickly and pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry, I'll stay."

There was a pause.

"Thank you." She said.

Harry shrugged it away. "It's ok."

"I meant for everything." She said huskily. "Thank you." He turned his head away making a face to shrug it off. "No..." she said. She reached up to his face and turned it back towards her slowly. She reached up gently and brought her lips to his.

Harry was kissing her back instantly, living out the day dream that had haunted him for months. For the second time that night, he knew - without a doubt - that he could take on the world.

**A/N : Hello again. I've had this chapter planned from the start, it's been excellent actually getting to write it, let me know what you think. Thank you all. **


	15. Always Remember to Knock

**Always Remember to Knock**

Harry fumbled for his glasses, as he sat up in his bed. Ginny was gone. His first thought was that he had dreamt that he had rescued her, that she was still one of Voldemort's captives. That thought quickly removed itself from his mind; for one he had still had a slight prickle in his scar, he could also smell her, even through the Chamber of Secrets, a day of torture, and fighting a battle, Ginny still left a flowery scent on the air, and lastly, there was the warm patch on the bed next to him and the indentation in the pillow, where she had slept. Harry smiled… So where was she?

There was a sudden _shriek_ from the room next door, then a_ thud_ and a _crash_, followed by a, "Sweet MERLIN!" and then another _thud _and a _slam_, then _thud, thud, thud, thud_, the door opened in front of Harry and Ginny bolted around it, slamming it shut in the process. She stopped, breathing hard, and rested back against the bedroom door, the flats of her hands pressed firmly behind her, as though she were holding it shut. Her eyes were big as Galleons and terrorised.

Harry looked at her, worried, and not a little confused. "Are you ok?" he asked.

She paused for a second, to take in a breath. "_Why didn't you tell me_?" She raged; her voice still sounding like it was being blown away by an invisible wind from her screaming while she was being tortured.

Harry frowned. "Tell you what?"

She waved her hand off towards Hermione's room. "About… About…" The fight seemed to go out of her, to be replaced by a slightly sickened look. "…Them." She finished lamely. She walked over and sat on the bed, close enough to Harry for him to take her hand.

"I thought you'd be happy for them." said Harry.

"Happy? Sure I'm happy, I'd just be happier if I'd gone to find Hermione for some clean clothes and not found… found…" She shuddered. "He's my brother for Pete's sake… I don't want to see…" She didn't finish, she just looked at the bedroom wall, disgusted.

Harry knew he should control himself, but he could not help but laugh. "Come on. You can wear some of mine." he said. "Let's go down stairs and I'll cook you breakfast."

Ginny sat, Harry's far-too-large-clothes hanging off of her, on a stool at the kitchen worktop with a steamy cup of tea warming one hand and Hermione's birthday present in the other warming the rest of her, while he worked on breakfast. He noticed her watching him lazily over her mug, and snatched glances at her whenever he could. Even when he was facing the other way, with a frying pan in one hand and a wand in his other, cooking, and setting the table at the same time; he could still feel her eyes on him, and it sent pleasant shivers down his back.

"Harry?" she said hoarsely.

"Hmm?"

"Does this mean that I can come and live here with you now?" Harry finished setting the table and turned the bacon before answering her.

"You've got to understand, Ginny," he started slowly, "that what I have to do is really danger-"

"I don't care if it's dangerous!" she retorted hotly putting her cup down. "I want to help… And I want to be with you. How safe was Hogwarts? How dodgy is it going to be at the Burrow? No where is safe now, but I want to be doing something to fight back, I want to have, at least, made the risk worth something." Her voice turned cold, "you broke up with me to keep me safe and out of harms way, well, look how nicely that turned out… Don't do it again… Please."

Harry stared at his feet until the sausages needed turning, he had come to a decision as soon as she had asked, but said decision required a little time to accept. "You were right, during the summer, when Ron, Hermione, and I were telling you all that we were leaving." He started as he prodded and poked at their food. "A prophecy was told to Dumbledore just before I was born. It said, '_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…_'"

Harry took the food off of the heat and began to dish up on four plates.

"Harry… Does that mean… What does that mean?"

"It means that I have a power that Voldemort cannot understand, and that one of us must kill the other." He handed one of the full plates to Ginny with a fork. "You don't look that surprised." he said, almost accusingly.

"I'm not."

"Oh."

Harry took his own plate and stuffed half a sausage in his mouth before realising how hot it was. Ginny laughed at him as he tried to suck in air quickly through his mouth to cool it.

Ron and Hermione chose this time to hurry down the stairs; Ron sniffed the air like a blood hound. He smiled when he saw his breakfast sitting at the table. "Excellent," he said, "I thought I could smell something." Harry saw him notice Ginny and blush a rosy red. Harry swallowed his sausage and gasped for breath. Hermione bit her lip and she too flushed … Ginny laughed again.

Harry could not believe how strong Ginny was. In the early hours of that very morning she had been in Voldemort's clutches, being tortured for his pleasure, and she had just been told that someone she cared about was going to have to fight to the death with that very same man, yet her spirits were un-dampened.

"What would mum say?" she teased her brother as he sat down and started to eat, "if she knew that you two were sharing a room."

"If you tell her… I'll… I'll…"

"Gape at me?" she finished for him.

Ron scowled, turning an even deeper shade of red. "You shared a bed with _Harry_ last night." he said as though his case was proven.

"I'll have you know that I was distressed last night,-"

"As long as you weren't disrobed." Cut in Ron scowling at Harry.

"And Harry was comforting me." She continued airily, as though she had not heard him. "You two are just hormonal."

"It's not like that." said Hermione quickly. Ginny stared at her, and slowly raised an eyebrow; Hermione turned the same colour as Ron.

"Well you'll just have to learn to knock in the future Ginny." said Harry smiling. Ginny snapped her gaze back to Harry quickly, her eyes full of unhidden hope.

"What do you mean, 'In the future'?" asked Ron, his face rapidly loosing its vivid colour.

"Ginny is going to be staying with us now."

"But… But…" Ron's eyes looked slightly wild. "It's too dangerous."

Harry shrugged a little. "Not really. It's a damn site safer here than it was at Hogwarts, and we all thought that that was the safest place there was."

"But we'll be going _looking_ for trouble, how safe is that going to be?" He argued.

Harry looked at his feet. "I broke up with Ginny," he started slowly, "in the hope that Voldemort –" he paused while Ron flinched, "– would look her by, it didn't work. Trouble came looking for her. Ginny is perfectly capable of looking after herself, and we'll be there to keep her safe she needs us."

"And I'll be there to keep you safe when you need me, Ron," smirked Ginny.

He scowled at her, but he sat back and played with his food, he flitted a glance up at Hermione. "What do you think?"

"Well, I think she'll be safe here too… She'll be fine." said Hermione, smiling at Ginny's happy expression. "And it would be nice to have her around don't you think?"

"Yeah…" he said sullenly, "yeah, I suppose so… How much have you told her?" he asked Harry.

"Only about the prophecy."

"Maybe you should fill her in on the rest." Ginny beamed.

So he did. He told her about Voldemort splitting his soul to become immortal, and that they were hunting the pieces down and had to destroy them, that they had found a Horcrux when they had overheard out about the attack on Hogwarts, and how that Horcrux was now trapped next to Hagrid's hut, right under Voldemort's nose. Harry showed her the locket and explained how he and Dumbledore had found a fake the night that he had died. He told her about the diary that she had had that had been destroyed, and about Marvolo's ring, that had also been destroyed. He gave details on the remaining pieces that they had to find, and let her know that they did not know where to begin, on finding them or destroying the ones that they already had.

Harry stored the locket in his pocket and Hermione took Ginny upstairs to change into some clothes that fit her before they went to the Burrow to let Mr and Mrs Weasley know that Ginny was safe.

"It'll be nice to go back to the Burrow for a bit," said Ron sprawled on a sofa, "seems like ages."

"It does, doesn't it?" Harry sat down in an armchair. "You reckon we'll be invited there for Christmas?"

"Course we will. We always are. Mmm, Mum's roast dinners." he said closing his eyes. "No offence mate, you're a good cook, but no one beats Mum's Christmas dinners."

They both sat enjoying the prospect of Mrs Weasley's cooking, until the girls came back down.

Harry got up and took Ginny's hand before Apparating to the Burrow.

As soon as he had, he wished that he had not.

The Burrow was wrecked, large holes had been blown out of it, small flames flickered near the roof, the windows were smashed and the doors knocked off of their hinges. But the worst thing of all was the sickly green skull hanging over it, the mark of Voldemort.

Ron and Hermione appeared a second later and Ginny ran in through the broken door. Harry tried to stop her but she was too quick, and he could do nothing but follow.

"Nooo!" shrieked Ginny. "Nooo!" she cried.

There on the floor through the door was Mr Weasley, he lay spread eagled on the ground, not a mark to show on him, but quite clearly dead. Ginny was on her knees by his side, tears pouring down her face, and wails escaping her lips. Harry knelt down next to her, and she threw her arms around him, and wept into his shoulder. Harry closed his eyes and lowered his face into Ginny's hair. His grief surely could not match Ginny's but Mr Weasley had still meant a lot to him. He had been someone Harry could count on, someone that he could confide in.

"MUM?" shouted Ron. "MUM!"

Harry felt him charge past and search the other rooms, he raced up the stairs and after a moment there was a cry, full of sorrow. Ginny let one out too, knowing full well what it had meant. Hermione strode past them, her face, a river of tears; she followed after Ron up the stairs to offer him what comfort she could.

Knowing that Mrs Weasley, lay in, no doubt, a similar position to her husband, upstairs, was if anything even worse than having found Mr Weasley. Mrs Weasley had always been the mother that he had never had, she had fussed over him, looked after him, and had treated him as good as her own sons.

They clung to each other, Ginny crying into Harry's shoulder and Harry sobbing into her hair, sharing a sadness that stemmed from a river that could never be dammed.

Harry did not know how long they knelt there on the kitchen floor, but eventually some sort of logical thought entered Harry's mind. "We should –" he swallowed away more tears, "we should get Ron and H-Hermione and find your brothers." he suggested.

Ginny did not stop crying but nodded her consent and stood. They met Ron and Hermione coming down the stairs.

"We thought we should find the others," said Hermione.

Harry nodded. "We thought the same… Grimmauld place?" he suggested.

Hermione agreed and Dissapparated. They arrived in the kitchen. Members from the Order of the Phoenix were seated around the table eating lunch. At the sound of the Apparition a few drew their wands.

"Ginny!" cried Bill. He leapt over the table and with a strangled gasp Ginny lunged forwards and they met in the middle in an embrace. "Ginny, you're safe, Ginny," he kept saying over and over as she cried in his arms and he stroked her hair. Fred and George quickly dashed over and sandwiched her in between them all.

"Bill… Bill." she gasped. "B-Bill… the Burrow, Bill, the Burrow, it's g-gone. Mum and D-Dad, t-they're dead." she wailed.

"No." gasped George.

"No." repeated his twin.

They both Apparated instantly, and a moment after they had disappeared, the other people in the room began to Disapparate. Bill looked up, over Ginny to Ron, as though hoping for him to oppose her. But Ron's streaming, puffy eyes were testament enough.

"No." whispered Bill. Harry saw Fleur behind Bill, far enough away not to intrude but close enough to offer comfort if it was wanted. Harry too felt like Ginny was sharing something with her brother that he should not interfere with.

"I-It w-was my f-fault." Ginny sobbed. "H-He must have – have been looking for m-me."

But Harry knew better, it was not Ginny's fault, it was his own. Voldemort had come after Ginny in the first place to get to him, and that had in turn led to the death of Mr and Mrs Weasley. Once again Voldemort had taken those that meant the most to him. An inconsolable rage welled up from deep within him and he had never felt more determined to fulfil the prophecy and destroy the man who had once been Tom Riddle once and for all.

**A/N: My, this was a hard chapter to write. I actually got really sad when I killed off Mr and Mrs Weasley, and then I got really angry, I wanted Harry to go marching on Hogwarts single handed and take out Voldemort, Horcrux or no. Of course, I restrained myself. But I hope you all like it. Thanks a lot.**


	16. Some Answered Questions

**Some Answered Questions**

The next two days passed in a in a blur of pain for Harry. He spent almost all of his time with Ginny, offering what comfort he could; he had never seen her look so sad, and it tore at his heart. The funeral was awful; Dumbledore had been a mentor, a legend, someone Harry looked up to, and his death had distressed him, but the Weasley's, were the closest thing that he had to a family.

The Weasley's were a well liked couple and lots of people rose to speak, and many, many more came to watch, and pay their respects privately.

Charlie had to be supported by Bill, and Percy was very quiet, but all of the siblings were together again. Harry felt very alone surrounded by the Weasley children, he was close to them, but he was not one of them, it made him very aware of the fact that he did not have a proper family of his own and never had. He suffered his grief in silence.

It was after the funeral that Bill asked Ginny if she would like to come and stay with him and Fleur now. He had not been overly impressed when she informed him that she was staying with Harry. It was also there that Harry was invited back to Grimmauld place for a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. "Ron and Hermione are welcome too of course," Lupin had said.

"What about Ginny?" Harry asked.

"Ginny," he'd said slowly, more of a statement than a question. "Well Harry, I'm afraid, she is still underage… and I don't think Molly or Arthur would have wanted her involved. It was enough trouble to get you three in, I don't think some people would approve of her being there and the Order is as good as leaderless at the moment, I don't think we should upset anyone."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "I don't want to leave her alone this soon after… after, what's happened." he said, his face apologetic, while Lupin nodded in understanding with a sad smile. "So, I'm sorry, but I won't be –"

"I'll stay with her," butted in Percy who had been walking past. He looked a little abashed to be talking to them. "I wanted to talk to her anyway, if you need to go somewhere, I'll look after Ginny."

Harry scowled; Percy had completely missed the point. Ginny did not need looking after, she was not a little girl any more, she needed comfort, someone who could hold her hand, and lend her a shoulder when it was needed. But Lupin was already nodding and saying, "Excellent, excellent, that's settled then." Percy strode off, Harry stared after him.

"How have you been Harry?" Lupin asked, making him lose his focus on Percy.

"Huh?"

"I asked, how you've been?" Lupin gestured with his head and they sat down on a couple of chairs in the back row, which were now empty of mourners.

Harry released a sardonic snort and smiled mockingly. "Just dandy. The closest people I've ever had to parents were killed, my girlfriend was captured and tortured by Voldemort, and I've gone and left something I really need, right under his nose, and I haven't had a full night's sleep for nearly a week." Harry rested an elbow on a knee and propped his forehead up with his fingertips, he closed his eyes. "Yes… I'm feeling absolutely amazing."

Lupin sighed. "Yes, I have to admit, I have not been sleeping well lately. I've been trying to spend as much time with Tonks in the hospital as I can… but they kick me out quite regularly."

"How is she?" Harry asked without lifting his head.

"Oh she'll be fine. They're just keeping her in to make sure." Lupin sighed again but it was a much more pleasant sound than the last. "I'll tell you Harry, moving in with her has turned my life around. Omitting the resent unpleasantness, I've never been happier. Speaking of which, I hear you have someone moving in with you." He chuckled softly. "I don't think Bill was very happy with the sleeping arrangements." Harry looked up sharply and crooked his neck. "Don't worry." said Lupin holding his hands up, "_I'm_ certainly not going to chastise you. I think Bill was going to though, until Ginny told him that it was you who had saved her." he lowered his voice considerably, "I'd like to talk about that some more later." Harry nodded tiredly.

There was a comfortable pause. "We're only sharing a bed you understand." Harry said suddenly, going red. "Nothing's happened… she's just been upset… she hasn't wanted to be left alone…"

Lupin smiled, his eyes twinkling in a way reminiscent of Dumbledore. "Of course, Harry, I never meant –"

"Only the way you said it… It sounded like… Well… You know." he finished lamely.

"I apologise, but like I said, it is certainly not my place." His smile danced on his lips. He was enjoying himself. Harry scowled at him. "But what have you been doing with yourself apart from saving the world?" Lupin continued. "No body is quite sure where you've been lately. You popped up to get Filius to perform the Fidelius charm, and the next time anyone sees you, you're alerting us to the attack."

"Fixing up the house mostly," said Harry sitting back and wrapping his cloak about him more tightly. "It was a wreck when we found it, we had to rebuild a lot of it, and set things straight, cut down the garden, and trim the tree. It's been quite hard work really… but the people about the place are excellent, a really friendly bunch."

"That's good, that's good. Hedwig's there I take it?"

"Yeah, she likes it; we live at the edge of the village, so she's got lots of places to hunt in the country side."

"Then don't feel shy about writing, it would be nice to hear from you now and then, if only to know that you're ok."

Harry nodded happily; it was nice to have someone to write to who he knew cared about him, an older person, who he could ask for advice and suggestions. Like Sirius. But his hopes fell. "But I thought you were underground." he said.

Lupin dropped his head. "I have failed." he said simply. "And I am no longer welcome… underground." He shook himself and stood up. "Why don't you say goodbye to Ginny, and then bring Ron and Hermione to headquarters?"

Harry stood too realising that he had probably touched a sore spot.

"And remember," said Lupin, "I'd like a word after the meeting where we can talk safely."

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat near the end of the kitchen table in Grimmauld place with Fred and George opposite them, it was busy to be sure, many people who they had never seen before sat chatting away, but faces that should have been there, familiar faces, were absent. Moody's scarred face sat near the other end, Lupin sat next to him, Bill was opposite them, and Kingsley Shacklebolt sat half way down with Sturgis Podmore, who's spell in Azkaban had not been kind to him, his eyes were sunken and heavy lidded, his back was hunched, and he seemed to have a permanent squint, opposite the two sat tiny Professor Flitwick, who's head barely reached above the table and surprisingly Professor Slughorn, who looked incredibly nervous about being there. The others sat around the table, near to twenty, were unfamiliar. It made Harry uneasy. He ducked his head towards his friends and whispered to them to keep a watch on what they said. Judging by the looks on their faces, they had come to the same conclusion.

"Right," growled Moody clunking to his feet. "I think this is everybody who's going to show." He waved his wand at the door, it glowed blue briefly, then reverted to its natural colour. "I thought I'd let you know how many we'd lost first off." He said, and proceeded to tell of the members who had fallen in the battle. Harry was appalled at the loss of life, seven members of the Order were dead or captured, fifteen more Aurors had perished, and a further seven of the order where still being treated at St Mungos.

"On a brighter note," said Kingsley, with his rich, melodic voice, after Moody had finished. "We also captured forty three Death Eaters and another five are suspected dead, the information that we have from them is already proving invaluable –"

"Like what?" interrupted a man near to Bill, "do you know why they attacked in the first place? It is totally out of character for You-Know-Who to do something like this. His normal tactics are hit and run, his death eaters have set targets and goals, and nothing else matters. But not this time. This time they've taken the one place everyone thought safe."

"You are correct Custos," rasped Moody, "it _would_ have been out of character for him to have tried to take Hogwarts. But I don't think he did. We know that he had two set targets: Ginny Weasley, and – for some reason – the sword of Gryffindor."

Harry flicked his head sideways and gave Ron and Hermione a frightened look, Hermione, at least, also recognised the importance of that statement. What if Voldemort had figured out that they were hunting his Horcrux? What if he was planning on creating more?

"I think that he only captured Hogwarts because the opportunity arose." Moody continued to bark. "What I would like to know is why he attacked with so many Death Eaters. It was as though he knew that he would meet resistance, which is more worrying if you'll remember that the attack was not meant to have happened for another two days, and that it occurred in the middle of the night."

"I believe I can help with that," there came a powerful voice not far away from Harry. He sat tall, with a straight back; he had shoulder length black hair, swept back, and a hard face with a scar running down the right side of his forehead, he sat with his hand on his drink in front of him, slowly tapping his thumb on the glass. "The ministry may be onto Kingsley but they don't suspect me yet. I was involved in the questioning that is going on at the moment.

"When you delivered Rookwood to us, Moody, we were incredibly surprised… We thought Rookwood was in Azkaban, we immediately sent for him and sure enough, Rookwood was brought to us out of Azkaban, we were left with two of them. Then, not an hour later, the one we had pulled from jail reverted to their natural form. The man we had thought we had been holding prisoner was in fact one Draco Malfoy, who had been using polyjuice potion... I believe that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, has one of the guards working for him to keep polyjuice being taken to the prisoner, or indeed prisoners, and that it was this same guard, or guards, who made the switch in the first place, it appears that You-Know-Who is not best pleased with the boy. We still haven't caught the mole… But back to the point," he said smartly, "when we took into custody the Death Eaters captured during the battle of Hogwarts they confessed, unwillingly, that when Malfoy had been removed from the prison, someone had been tipped off and gone to check on Rookwood, when they saw that he was gone and since he knew about the attack it had to change, incidentally the thing that Rookwood had been guarding there was also gone, but I'm not sure what –"

"I do." Harry mumbled through his fingers, which were pressed together over his mouth, making it look as though he was praying. Everyone turned to him, he could tell that they had all been waiting for him to speak, and the room had gone completely silent. "It was a statue," he folded his hands and set them down on the table, "of Godric Gryffindor." He closed his eyes. "And it was my fault that they attacked Hogwarts two days early." His grief over Mr and Mrs Weasley's death, and his anger at not being able to do anything about it, were washed away and replaced with a fresh bout of guilt.

"What are you talking about Harry?" said Lupin hastily, Harry looked up the table at him and noticed that he looked worried, and, perhaps, a little scared.

Harry spoke to the room but his eyes did not meet anyone else's. "Friday night, we found something that I recognised as belonging to Voldemort," he started slowly, the room let out an almost unanimous shudder at the name and he sunk slightly lower in his chair. "More or less the same time, I overheard Rookwood being given orders to go to Hogwarts on Monday night. Hermione wanted us to go straight to Hogwarts, to warn McGonagall and get the school evacuated. I decided that we had plenty of time… that we could take the statue first and replace it with a fake and still be able to warn the school." He shook his head sadly. "I was an idiot," he said harshly, "The statue had fail safes, like I should have known it would, and it attacked us; Hermione was hurt, we had to call in help." He looked down at his hands. "Rookwood was there to protect it, and I knew that he was going to be there, and I still went to get it, if I had of left the statue, they never would have suspected that we were onto them. Voldemort sent lots of Death Eaters because he must have known that we would try and evacuate the school and that the Order would be called in to help."

"Where's this statue now?" asked Moody.

"Hidden," replied Harry, "at Hogwarts." Despite the hopelessness of the situation his voice became strong. "Which is where I will be heading next –"

"We!" said Hermione, leaning around Ron and scowling.

He nodded his consent and continued, "– we, will be going as soon as we can. It needs to be recovered."

"What is so important," begun Remus gravely, "about this statue that you would risk treading right under Voldemort's nose to get it?"

Harry looked apologetically at Lupin. "I'm sorry; I can only tell you that it is part of the task that Dumbledore left me."

There was much angry muttering at this, obviously it had been discussed before, but Lupin at least was satisfied with his answer.

"And just how do you plan on getting back into Hogwarts now that You-Know-Who has it under his control?" scoffed a woman sitting next to George. She raised an eyebrow mockingly at him.

"There is a place," he answered carefully, "so deep down, that the anti-apparition wards don't reach it. We'll go in there."

"When?" Asked a man at the other end of the table who Harry thought had spoken earlier but could not remember his name.

Harry thought for a moment. "Tomorrow night… after midnight."

"We'll help." said Fred seriously staring straight at Harry. He had a look of fierce determination on his face, mirrored by George, and Harry knew that they were feeling an intense desire to do something to strike back at the man who was putting them through so much pain.

"We've just managed to make an invisibility cloak." said George. There were gasps and cries of disbelief from around the table, Hermione in particular looked shocked. "If we take that, and yours Harry, we should be able to get in and out undetected."

"And if we take the map, we may just be able to have ourselves a little fun." said Lupin with a look of mischief in his eye. Suddenly, rather than going on his own, Harry was going to be part of a group of six, most likely seven once Ginny heard about it.

Nobody said anything for a while. Harry thought that a lot of the Order had been surprised by Lupin's offer to accompany him. Remus was the voice of reason as a rule.

"Right then," said Moody, "I think that we should post a guard on Hogwarts at all times, they might not be able to do anything, but it would be wise to keep an eye on it. They can take my spare invisibility cloak. Six hour shifts should do it. All in favour?" Hands were raised around the room as people mumbled their agreement. They quickly produced a schedule to be starting with. Kingsley would start, to be relieved by the Auror with swept back hair, then a lady who sat jiggling her knees, then Moody would take his own stint, followed by Professor Flitwick, and then the man called Custos, and finally a man who Harry could not see but had a high nervous voice. "Is there anything else that anyone would like to add?" Moody invited.

"Yes." said Fred, he and George stood to address their audience. "We've already said that we have managed to develop an invisibility cloak, but we have also managed to produce a large quantity of shielded cloaks, with more protection than the last batch."

"We thought that the Order could benefit from them, and we're willing to give them to everyone."

"They have a small emblem just on the inside, by the clasp, of a phoenix rising from the flames."

"We thought it might be a bad idea to put the sign on the outside, but it means that you can tell if it's one of ours."

"We'll bring them here the next chance that we get, and you can pick them up as and when you want." They sat back down. No one else spoke up.

"Ok then," growled Moody, "Until next time."

The assorted individuals around the table rose and began to make their way to either the fire, or the door, but Harry caught Lupin's tilt of the head and telling Ron and Hermione that he would see them at home, headed upstairs. He stopped suddenly at the entrance to the kitchen when Professor Slughorn, who was next in the queue to exit up the short flight of stairs, turned to face him slowly with a look of horror written across his face. His eyes took Harry in quickly.

"You have it!" he whispered harshly. Slughorn appeared to either want to throttle Harry or run away from him, but could not decide which, and could not do either. "You have it don't you," he said. Harry only frowned in confusion.

"SHOW IT TO ME!" Slughorn shouted, in fear more than anger, he was leaning away from Harry and turned slightly, ready to bolt, small bits of spittle flecked his lips and his eyes were huge and round. The room was silent; no one seemed to be worried about leaving anymore.

Slughorn looked away for a second, his eyes calculating, as he worked something out. "That's where you went with Dumbledore the night he died wasn't it. Of course… of course, he showed you the memory. You went to go and get it didn't you. That's were you went wasn't it." He looked back up to Harry's eyes. "WASN'T IT!"

And finally Harry begun to suspect what this could be about, but the implications of it were huge. Dumbledore had said that he could feel Voldemort's magic, knew his style, because he had taught him. Slughorn too, had taught Tom Riddle. "You can feel it can't you." said Harry.

Slughorn flinched slightly, he looked pasty, like he was about to faint. Harry slowly and carefully reached into his pocket and, concealing what he was doing, allowed Slughorn a glimpse at the Slytherin's locket. Slughorn's eyes rolled up in his head and he hit the floor with a resounding crash.

**A/N : I hope you all enjoyed this one. It's taken me a long time to update i know. I've had lots of work piled on me at uni. I do apologise. But what do you think? How does everyone want the story to continue? I haven't asked for any input before because i know pretty much where the stories going. But I've got a large gap to fill in a little while and if anyone wants anythign in particular to happen, let me know. See you all soon. Thanks. **


	17. Stairs and Statues

**Stairs and Statues**

Slughorn came awake slowly. He was lying on a sofa in the sitting room at Grimmauld place. Harry had levitated him there after he had fainted, politely told everyone else to go away and leave him alone, and then sealed the door. He did not want to be disturbed.

"What – Harry?" Slughorn sat up and swung his feet off of the couch. "What's going on?" he asked.

Harry was sat in a chair by the fire watching him. "I need to know how you knew about this," he said drawing the locket from his pocket. Slughorn flinched back, the same way that people flinched from Voldemort's name. "Do you know what it is?"

He slowly nodded. "It is a Horcrux."

"And how do you know about it?" asked Harry as calmly as he could.

Slughorn wrung his hands. "Harry… Harry you have to understand that if anyone ever knew what I'd done… If Tom ever found out…"

"You think I'd tell him?" Harry said angrily. "I'm trying to kill him."

Slughorn grimaced and swallowed. He looked around the room nervously. "You wouldn't have a drink handy would you?"

Harry walked over to the drinks cabinet on the wall, tall and dark with a glass front, almost identical to the cabinet in the drawing room from which they had first seen the locket. He poured two glasses of mead and placed them on the table. He took a sip from his own. Slughorn downed his in one. Harry raised his eye brows and filled it back up.

"When I was at Hogwarts before I retired," Slughorn started, "I had in my club a boy who used to live in this very house…" And there it was… Harry sat slowly back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, Sirius's brother had the initials RB. Slughorn finished his second drink; Harry noticed that his hands were not shaking quite as much now. "When he left school he became a Death Eater. He rose up quickly in You Know Who's ranks, very quickly, he was not a particularly good wizard but he was a sharp boy. He was entrusted something to look after, to protect… the Horcrux." He paused and sunk his face into his hands. "He realised then the lengths that You Know Who would go to for immortality, he realised that his quest to eradicate muggleborns was not born out of his beliefs, but out of a thirst for power… He became afraid. He became angry; he wanted some way of getting back at the man who had dragged him so far into the depths of depravity… So he came to me for help."

Slughorn stood and turned away from Harry gesturing with his hands as he continued. "I was a mentor of his, I had helped him on a number of occasions, he had a brilliant mind, he would have gone far… he trusted me." He paused for a long time, but Harry did not want to interrupt, Slughorn seemed to be telling him everything that he knew about this Horcrux, something he had thought that he was going to have to try to force out of him; he did not want to lose this chance to find out anything that he could.

"Regulus did not know how to get the locket from where it was hidden. So he took me to the cave where it was kept, and together we found our way to an island where the locket was kept, in the bottom of a basin full of a potion that I had never seen before. We tried everything that we could think of to get rid of it, but it would not work. It had to be drunk." Harry shivered knowing exactly what was coming next. "Regulus drunk the potion, I-I-I had to force it down him… We replaced the locket with a fake, and left.

"We came back here afterwards, I tried, as hard as I could, to create an antidote but I could not. Regulus died… I tried to destroy the locket, hoping that I could make Tom once again mortal. But I could not. I am ashamed to say that I fled… I left it here and fled."

Harry felt that this was the end of Slughorn's story so he felt safe in asking, "How did you try to destroy it?"

He glanced back to Harry's face. "The Avada Kedavra curse, various potions that had destructive capabilities, I even tried hitting hit with a hammer. Nothing works, I've tried it all."

They were both silent for a long time. Dumbledore had made Harry force him to drink that potion, when Slughorn had known all along that the locket was gone. If he had only said something before… Harry got up, strode to the door and yanked it open, the spells that he had cast on it popped off as he did so.

"That was were you and Dumbledore went the night that he died wasn't it?" asked Slughorn quietly. "Dumbledore made you force feed him the potion."

"Yes!" said Harry, "we found you're fake locket." He went to walk out.

"Then I hope you have more luck getting rid of that than I did and make Tom mortal again."

Harry let out a scathing laugh. "You think this was the only one that he made? What do you think the statue was that I'm going back to recover tomorrow night?" He scowled at his former Professor. "He made far more than this." He showed Slughorn Slytherin's locket and escaped the room leaving a horrified Slughorn to himself.

The following night found Harry and his friends in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place ready to go into Hogwarts and retrieve the statue of Godric Gryffindor. It was dark, the fire was burning low and the sun had set hours ago. Ginny held Harry's hand tightly, running her lip through her teeth as she had been doing since the sun had set. Ron and Hermione were near by, Hermione had become increasingly irritable the past few hours, but Harry did not pay it too much concern, he could tell that she was nervous. Fred and George sat at the kitchen table, which held brooms for everyone, going over the equipment they had on them: their belts were full of handy contraptions for all circumstances, their pockets overloaded with weapons and jokes and useful titbits to hurt the Death Eaters. Among them all only Lupin looked unaffected by what they were about to do. He sat quietly, waiting for the clock to chime.

When the chime finally came he stood up and nodded to Harry. Barely a minute later, the group stood in the chamber of secrets.

Lupin unfolded the Marauders Map and spread it on the floor. "_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_." Quite calmly he beckoned to the others and pointed to the bathroom that they would emerge from. "They are expecting us," he said.

"Who knew about this mission?" asked George evenly.

"Only the Order of the Phoenix members who were at the meeting yesterday." answered Hermione.

"A spy?" suggested Harry.

"Apparently so." agreed Lupin coolly.

"It doesn't matter." said George.

"We'll handle it." said Fred flatly.

Lupin nodded and folded up the map. Harry and Ron led them to through the door, over fallen rocks and snake skins to the pipe that ran to the girls bathroom.

Fred turned to Harry. "How do you open the sink?" he asked.

Harry frowned. "I'd better come with you."

The three of them soared up the pipe to the top, their lit wands pointed in front of them. The top was flat and sealed. Harry signalled the twins up next to him.

"I'm going to try and open the sink," he whispered, "once it's opened, everyone will know we're here."

"Not a problem," George whispered back, removing assorted objects from his belt, "as soon as it's open, get away."

Harry turned his attention to the underside of the sink; he put his wand away and imagined snakes writhing near him.

"_Open._" He hissed. He knew it had worked as soon as he heard the hiss from his mouth. He spun his broom and dived as quickly as he could, he felt a rushing wind follow him and saw flashes of light from behind.

A minute later Fred and George descended the pipe to let them know that there were no longer any opposition. They all flew up to the bathroom.

Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and gave it to Ron and Hermione, Fred pulled out his and covered himself, George and Ginny, and Lupin pulled out one of Moody's cloaks and Harry ducked underneath.

"Has anyone realised we're here?" Harry whispered to Lupin.

"No, they're all still in bed."

"Let's go." Said Harry louder.

Twenty minutes later they stood near the peak of the highest staircase in the castle taking a lesson from Lupin in making the top most steps so insubstantial that anyone who would try and step on it would fall through, plummeting dozens of feet to be killed or crippled. They would continue through the castle doing the same thing to every staircase that they found, every now and then turning the banister to a matter resembling jelly, in the hopes that someone would lean on it and topple over.

Barely a minute later, they were passing Hagrid and McGonagall still frozen in the same position as they had been nearly a week ago, carrying the portrait of the Fat Lady who they were going to hide in an unused classroom. Without the portrait the Gryffindor common room was sealed.

Thirty seconds after that found the corridor with the portrait of the wizard teaching trolls to dance, blackened with a strong dose of Peruvian darkness, which according to George would last for months.

Half an hour had gone by, when Ron persuaded the drainage system to empty through the bath taps, and Ginny rearranged the toilets to work backwards. Fred and George hacked their way into the plumbing, and sprinkled things from numerous tin cans into the water supply. They were not expecting the spells to last for long but what discomfort and humiliation they could cause Voldemort was worth the effort.

It would not be long before Hermione could be seen bewitching the fruit, in the tapestry leading to the kitchen, to play hide and seek; giggling fit to burst, in the other paintings. If the Death Eaters wanted to stay in Hogwarts they would do so without the privilege of a pantry.

They passed a mirror and Harry jinxed it to shout abuse at anyone that it saw as they had been doing with any mirror that they came across. They all made sure they were well covered with the invisibility cloaks when they did this. Along the same corridor Fred hexed another suit of armour to go berserk at the sight of a snake and attempt to do it in… Harry had told him that Voldemort owned a pet python.

Ten minutes later they were stood next to the Forbidden Forest by the untouched, grave that the statue of Gryffindor was buried in.

"Remus?" asked Harry who felt Lupin nod from next to him and whisper to the map.

"All clear, there's no movement in the school what so ev – Harry!" he exclaimed urgently.

"What?" he replied quickly.

"Look." Lupin pointed at the map. "Ollivander."

"What?" He hurriedly looked at the map.

"Ollivander is down in the dungeons!"

The others had removed their cloaks and stood staring at him as though waiting for him to decide what to do. He looked at Lupin.

"We have to rescue him," Lupin said.

Harry nodded, but realised that they could not risk taking Gryffindor back up to the castle with them during the rescue attempt. He checked his watch to give himself more time to think.

"I'll have to go," he reasoned, "we'll get him out through the chamber and I'm the only one that can get us down there." He turned to Ron. "You three will have to get the statue home, yourselves. Remember not to let it get its sword," he reminded them, "and always keep it tied up."

Ron nodded. Ginny stared at him stonily, but did not argue.

Harry took a deep breath. Lupin held the cloak open for him. "See you back home." he said quietly to his friends as he, Lupin, Fred and George walked away.

Ollivander was filthy, worn, and decrepit. He had obviously not been treated well. His normally wild hair was lank and stuck down, his face was a mass of lines and wrinkles and his clothes were nothing but rags.

The door to the dungeon in which he was been kept was vanished very easily. Fred and George bundled the old semi-comatose man between them and tried, unsuccessfully, to hide all three of them under their invisibility cloak.

They began to walk back up through the castle when they spotted Peeves the poltergeist drifting along on his back humming a tune. They stopped to let him past but Harry saw his eyes stray to the fair portion of Ollivander that was showing between the twins. He stopped.

"We'll try and keep him quiet," whispered Fred. He and George ducked out from the cloak and ran silently to Peeves' side. Harry and Lupin moved up next to Ollivander and helped him to keep walking.

Harry could hear faint whispering behind him as Fred and George whispered quickly.

"I think they've just made a mistake," whispered Lupin.

"What do you m-" started Harry.

"INTRUDERS! AN ATTACK ON THE CASTLE. AWAKE. AWAKE. AWAKE. AWA-"

"_Langlock._" But it was too late, Peeves shot off with his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, smashing what ever he found.

"We're found out!" cried Lupin watching the map. He abandoned his cloak and scrunched in into his pocket. "RUN!"

Fred helped Ollivander onto George's back and they set off as fast as George could go. At the top of the next staircase, after quickly conjuring a bridge to get across the fake stairs, they swapped Ollivander onto Fred's back and continued.

Barely thirty seconds later they heard screams as the first Death Eaters fell victim to their efforts. Harry felt a vicious satisfaction.

At the door to the bathroom and their escape, they slowed while everyone funnelled through and Harry felt something strike him on his back, but the spell, what ever it was, got deflected off of the cloak that the twins had given him. He turned to see a Death Eater had just appeared around the last corner, he was dressed in nightclothes.

"_Petrificus Totallus._" he cried, as he slashed his wand sideways. As luck would have it five more men slid around the corner at the same time and they all went rigid as Harry's kitchen table and thunked to the ground. Harry ducked in to the bathroom and hissed as fast as he could. The sink opened and they were home free. He just hoped that Ron, Hermione and Ginny had been so successful.

**A:N/ Ron, Hermione and Ginny did not have such a smooth adventure. But that stories for next time. Please R&R.**


	18. A Useful Offer

**A Useful Offer**

Ron and Ginny sat close together on the sofa, staring at the fire. They had been like this for days, getting up to eat, to sleep and to use the bathroom, staring at the fire for long periods of time, and crying shamelessly for the rest. Harry understood what they were feeling, he had felt that grief before, and felt it again now. But he had to be strong for the two red heads. It was hard! He had been around them all of the time since their parents' funeral, he cooked for them, he cleaned their socks for them, and Ginny had taken up a more permanent place in his bed. He found it very hard to grieve himself. The last time that he had cried for them had been at the funeral, but it had not been enough. Ginny was able to let out the hurt that consumed her. She came to him at night and cried into his shoulder for hours, and Harry knew from Hermione that Ron was doing the same with her. But at those times, when he had to be strong, all he wanted himself, was for Ginny to hold him while he cried for hours, and was given a chance to release the ever increasing, pressuring, carnivorous heartache that threatened to explode his ribcage and scatter his heart to the four winds. The only thing that was keeping him going was the other emotion that resided in his chest and that forced him to be strong for Ginny. It was the only thing that he could draw from for his strength.

Harry heard the beep of a horn from outside and tilted his head to peer out of the window at the blue Ford Anglia that was parked outside. It turned out that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had most definitely not had an easy time getting the statue of Gryffindor – which was now safely buried in the back garden – home. They had excavated it without a problem but the gates to Hogwarts were firmly locked, as they had expected them to be and so they had had to try and fit the statue down the hole at the base of the Whomping Willow, but it would not fit, which they had not expected. They had heard a shout from the castle and, fearing the worst, fled into the forest with the statue… "In retrospect," Hermione had said, "it was a bad idea." They ran for barely ten minutes before charging straight into the middle of the sleeping centaur herd, which had promptly woken and decided to punish them for trespassing, a few spells and, by all accounts a few marvellously cast Bat Bogey hexes later, they had run for it… only to dart straight into the nest in which Aragog had once resided. The centaurs had decided that they had just brought about enough punishment on their own and gave up the chase to go back to their star gazing. According to Ron they had all given up hope by this point and had stood back to back, prepared to take as many of their eight legged friends with them when they fell. But, with a blaring horn and flashing lights, Mr Weasley's old car had gunned its way through the horde of spiders and rescued them just like it had done for Harry and Ron years and years ago.

When Harry had returned home after rescuing Ollivander, who was being tended to by madam pomfrey, he had been out of his mind with worry. He had searched the house for his friends and then gone to Grimmauld place to search there too. Lupin had found him there calling out and had stopped him from taking his hunt back to Hogwarts itself. "That's suicide Harry!" Lupin had shouted, as forceful as Harry had ever heard him. He had persuaded Harry to return home and wait.

He had paced around the house for hours and hours, biting his nails and fidgeting. He had never been so worried about anything in his life. He had told himself, over and over again, that they would be ok, but deep down he did not believe it. He stuck his head through the fire to check whether Lupin had heard from them, every twenty minutes. When the blue car had pulled up outside the following morning Harry had charged out of the house slamming the door against the wall as he went and before Ginny had properly emerged from the back of the car he bundled her up with a tight squeeze and lifted her off of the ground half spinning round.

"I thought you were all dead," he had gasped. "Are you ok? What took so long?" He set Ginny down and rested his forehead against hers; she had a faint smile on her face.

"We're fine Harry. It's ok," she had said soothingly, stroking his cheek with a thumb.

But that was the last time that Harry had seen Ginny smile and he was worried for her.

And so the car sat outside under muggle repelling charms honking away and flashing its lights.

As Harry pulled the chicken out of the oven and Hermione laid the table an owl fluttered down onto the windowsill by him. He set down dinner and opened the window. The owl hopped in and ruffled its dark brown feathers. Before he could shut the window a second owl swooped through and flew to the table by Ron and Ginny.

_Dear Harry,_

_We never did get to have that chat, did we? I was wondering whether you would like to come by Grimmauld place on Saturday evening around eight o'clock? I would very much like to talk to you. _

_Remus._

Harry looked up to see the owl waiting to take a reply. "Go on now." he said, shooing it away. "Go on, I'll use my own owl, she needs the exercise." He would send Hedwig back right after dinner agreeing to see him.

"Who is the letter from?" Hermione asked Ron.

"Bill." he said dully. "He wants to see Ginny and me."

"What about?"

"I don't know." Ron turned the parchment over as though searching for an answer. "He didn't say. He just said that he wanted to see us tomorrow; all seven of us."

Ron did not seem that bothered but Ginny chewed on her lip. "I bet he just wants the chance to ask me to stay with him again." She ran her fingers through her coppery hair. "He might stop me from staying here."

"How's he gonna do that?" asked Ron indignantly. "He can't stop you."

"But he can," she said louder. "Now that… I mean..." Her lower lip trembled. "He's in charge now, isn't he?" Tears began to leak from her eyes again and Harry started to leave the kitchen to go to her but Hermione stopped him with a hand on his arm. Ron brought Ginny closer to him.

"It's ok," he said, "We can take him if we have to." Ginny let out a half laugh half sob. "And if you still smell this bad tomorrow he'll not want you anywhere near him let alone share a house, when was the last time you had a bath?"

"Ron! That's horrible," said Hermione but Ginny let out a soft giggle.

"When was the last time _you_ had one." She fired back. "You stink."

Ginny stood up and straightened her robes a bit. "Have I got time to have a bath before dinner Harry?" she asked.

Hoping beyond hope that this could be the beginning of the end of her grief, Harry inspected the vegetables knowing his answer before he'd looked but feeling that he should at least put on a show of checking. "Yeah, it'll still be a little while yet, and I've got to carve up the chicken." After all, thought Harry, turning down the heat on the vegetables, she _did_ need a bath.

"They want me to lead the Order of the Phoenix." Lupin told Harry.

They both sat in the living room at Grimmauld place with a steamy cup of tea each. They each sat on sofas which faced each other over a low table covered in place mats and neatly stacked parchment. Darkness had set hours ago and the light of lanterns lit the room on one side, their light fighting for dominance over the fire on the other. Harry looked up at Lupin over his mug, the older man's face distorted by the hot vapour rising from the searing liquid.

"Who's _they_?" asked Harry.

"The members of the Order. We voted on it and they picked me." He stared at the wall with a slightly bemused expression on his face.

"What did you say?"

"That I'd have to think about it." Lupin smiled wryly at Harry. "I've always viewed myself more as someone working in the background, to be honest. The person bringing up the rear and making sure no one has been left behind… Never the leader."

The sat in a companionable silence for a while, both thinking.

"I think you'd make a good leader." Harry said after a much consideration. "Everyone trusts you."

Lupin nodded slowly. "It means a lot to hear you say that Harry. I have been waiting to hear your opinion on this." Harry felt his cheeks redden. "But what if their trust is misplaced?"

Harry quirked his mouth. "There's really no one else more trust worthy though, or better suited to lead."

Lupin smiled looking abashed. "Moody?"

"We'd all be forced fed Veritiserum every time we came near him," Harry laughed.

"Yes. I suppose we would." He stared at the ceiling for a while. "Yes… I think I'll do it."

Harry smiled. He had not said much to sway him really, and Harry felt that Lupin would have done it anyway.

"So, how are Ron and Ginny?"

Harry shrugged and cocked his head. "They're doing better than they were a week ago," he replied. "They saw all their brothers a couple of days ago and Bill wanted Ginny to go and stay with him again, but Ginny said no, and Percy offered her a job again." He sat up a bit straighter. "You remember after the funeral you said that Ginny couldn't come to the Order meeting and Percy took her?" Lupin nodded, squinting to find the memory. "Well he offered her a job then, too. You see, he's taken over his dad's job at the Ministry."

"What did she say?"

"No. She still hasn't forgiven him for walking out."

Lupin nodded deeply and slowly. "How is she after the kidnapping?"

"She's been ok… I think… I don't know, I don't think that she's really thought about it a lot since her parents died." Harry drained the last of his cooling tea; he hated thinking about Ginny being in Voldemort's clutches. "She thought she was there, in the Chamber of Secrets, for days, you know."

"No," Lupin said slowly, "I didn't."

Harry nodded. "Voldemort would let her fall asleep for just enough time to trick her into thinking she'd slept through the night, he would wake her up asking if she had had a good nights sleep." His knuckles stood out, white against his hands. "It's impossible to keep track of time under the crutiatus curse… she thought that she'd been under the curse for hours and he did nothing to dissuade her of it. He was trying to convince her that no one was coming… That she had been forgotten about. He did it just to hurt her more… He _knew_ I would come, he was sure of it."

"How?" asked Lupin.

Harry looked up to his face seeing a nervous curiosity in his eyes. Harry sighed and sat forward, covering his mouth and nose with steepled fingers, hooking his thumbs under his chin and began to talk to the table in front of him. "You remember, just after Voldemort returned, I had visions of what he was doing?" Remus nodded. "After what happened at the Ministry he began to practice occlumency to block me out. But he dropped his defences while he had Ginny so that I when I fell asleep I would enter his mind and see what he was doing." Harry glanced up to see Lupin wincing.

"So you escaped his mind and Apparated into the chamber of secrets?"

"Not exactly. That night in the Ministry, Voldemort tried to possess me in the hope that Dumbledore would kill me on the off chance that Voldemort would be killed too. But without knowing how, I drove him out of my mind. I did not know how I did it, Dumbledore tried to explain but I didn't really understand.

"So Voldemort allowed me into his mind down in the chamber, thinking that he was safe enough, and wanting to hurt me by what he was doing to Ginny. But again, without knowing exactly how, I drove him away, out of his_ own _mind this time. I took control of his body and Apparated Ginny to safety." Harry smiled grimly. "I know exactly how to take control of him now," he whispered. "I understand what Dumbledore was saying now."

"Don't do it!" Lupin said harshly, sitting forward.

"Do what?" asked Harry, bemused looking straight into Lupin's eyes.

"It is far too dangerous to try and possess Voldemort, the things he could do to your mind in that state don't bare thinking about and I know you Harry, and if I had to guess I'd say that given the opportunity next time you would try and use this ability to kill Voldemort." Harry looked away, he did indeed have a half formed notion of using his power over Voldemort to take control and walk him off of the top of the Astronomy tower. But he had to destroy the Horcruxes first, and how could he destroy those pieces of soul? The diary had been destroyed using a fang but it had been made of paper, the two pieces he had at home were made of metal and resistant to magic, incredibly hard, therefore, to destroy, and if the Avada Kedavra curse did not work, they could not attempt to kill the soul trapped inside (an idea Hermione had come up with) but how could they kill something when the Avada Kedavra curse did not work?

"Are you alright Harry?" He heard Lupin speaking to him as though from far away. "You look rather pale."

Harry was sure he did, because he had just realised that there was indeed a way of killing something without using the killing curse. He would throw the Horcruxes through the arch way in the death room in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. He would send them beyond the veil that way.

"I'm sorry Remus. I have to go." He stood up shakily, excitement coursing through his body.

"Are you sure you are ok?" Lupin got up quickly opposite him looking worried. Harry agreed that he must have looked very strange with the grin he could feel on his face, and the slightly wild look he imagined he must have had in his eyes.

Harry did not think he would be able to Apparate, as high strung as he was. "Would I be able to borrow some floo powder?"

"Um, of course." He went to the mantel piece and took down a jar, handing it to Harry.

"I'm glad we talked today Remus, I'm sorry I have to go but have to go, I think… I think I've just figured out how to destroy Voldemort."

"Harry I told you, possessing Voldemort like this is dangerous, please tell me your not planning on walking him off the top of the Astronomy tower or something."

Harry laughed, sure that he was not comforting Lupin at all but un able to help but feel jubilant. "No no no." He said shaking his head. His face suddenly became very serious. "I can walk him through the veil," he said just before disappearing in green flame."

"Ginny?" he called once he had stepped out of the fireplace. She turned around from where she was sitting on a stool by the kitchen work top.

"Ginny!" he said again smiling brightly. "How would you feel about getting a job?"

**A/N: I know… It's been ages since I updated… sorry.**


	19. New Recruits

**New Recruits **

The first of December dawned clear but cold. Harry had noticed the shop around the corner had put up Christmas decorations and they were selling gifts and advent calendars. He had never seen Christmas as a cause for celebration until he had gone to Hogwarts, it had mostly consisted of being disappointed, but he had met Ron, who loved Christmas, and Harry had had a wonderful time at the Burrow during the holidays. But he did not see how it could be the same without Mr and Mrs Weasley, without a Weasley jumper, and without either the Burrow, or Hogwarts. He knew it would be even worse for Ron and Ginny, but they would come in time, Harry hoped, to realise the same as he had after Sirius' death, that they had to move on.

This was Ginny's first day at work. She had risen early, grumbling and moaning to Harry about making her work with her brother. As her boss no less! He suspected that she was just nervous about her first day. He had kissed her goodbye at the fireplace and she disappeared is a burst of bright flame.

So Harry spent the morning lolling around the house, being a nuisance. He tried to immerse himself in some books but they did not hold his attention for long, he either already knew the spells that they were instructing or else were so detailed and complex that it seemed foolish to even try to set his brain to the task of learning them.

After sitting and twiddling his thumbs in front of the fire for a while he drew his wand, noticing that a layer of dust had settled on the table, looking like the light that danced across the top of the lake out of a sky hosting dappled clouds. He would not have discerned the offending particles, had Hermione not dragged her fingers across the table as she rose moments ago, to leave furrows in the dust like rakes leave troughs in the dirt.

Harry opened his mouth to incant a charm to eradicate the dust when he stopped and decided that he did not have anything pressing to do, and would attempt to cast the spell non-verbally. He could do it now and then, certain spells were easier than others, and one or two he would routinely use without a breath of air escaping his lips. But this spell was not one that Harry practiced a lot, Hermione being the one who would normally feel the urge to clean, and so he was prepared for this to take a long time to master.

He failed. Quite miserably, and gave up after fifteen minutes, shouting the incantation in frustration.

Hermione's head popped around the corner. "Is everything ok, Harry?" she asked.

"Yes…" he said huffing, "yes everything is fine. I'm going to go to the shop, I think we're out of milk." He stood and put on some extra layers to cut out the biting wind and chill cold.

"I'll be back in a bit," he told Hermione.

She nodded. "Ok, be careful."

Harry stepped into the shop and a horror met his eyes. Death Eaters had swamped it. He counted five at a glance, two stood either side of a small group of terrified villagers; they huddled, in the open space in the shop between the sliding doors and the start of the aisles, Harry noted with a sick wrench that three lay completely motionless, there was a child clinging to one of these still forms, looking to his right, Harry saw that Joan, the checkout lady was slumped unmoving over her desk. A young couple kneeled close to each other, their heads facing the floor as they tried to become as inconspicuous as possible, the woman's red hair falling around her face and draping a little over the mans shoulder. Two more Death Eaters lurked in the back of the shop and one of the cloaked figures stood in front of the captives pacing back and forward. "I will ask you all one more time… Where –"

"Gulmont!" Came a harsh voice from behind him. Harry spun to see two more Death Eaters who had closed behind him, blocking the doors. Harry swore to himself… that made seven. Harry knew that he could not run, he could not hide, and he could certainly not talk his way out. He had only one option left. He had to attack.

He whipped his wand out and stunned one of the Death Eaters on the door before a sound of retaliation could be uttered; he threw a shield up behind him just in time and petrified the other man on the door as he heard curses ricochet of his protection. He spun back around ducking out of the way of two disarming charms shot from the two men by the captives. The man he guessed to be in charge -Gulmont- was standing in the centre of Harry's vision holding the crying child up by his ankles with his wand pointed at his head.

The villager to the left, the young man, his dark blonde hair cut close, rose towards the man holding the child. "Oi! Let go of him."

_Levicorpus_, Harry thought, sending the Death Eater to the right hurling up into the air, as he flipped over, the mans head hit the floor, and a sickening thwack was heard, before he shot into the air to hang silently.

The young man spun the Gulmont around and with a child in one hand and a wand in his other he could do nothing to stop the fist from sinking into the side of his face.

Harry ducked out of the way of a jet of flame, the two men from the back of the store had reached the front. He wanted to turn and run, he knew he should try to escape, but he also knew that if he did, that that child, who was being dropped by Gulmont, would be killed. He had to try and save these people.

Gulmont stopped his recoil from the blow and spun back towards the enraged young man, thrusting forward with his wand. Harry saw the concussion in the air and winced as an unseen force caught the man on his left eye. He was twirled round and dropped to the floor.

The lady who had been next to him wailed and dodged forward but was hit by a brown beam and fell back, still.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" roared Harry. His opponent put up a shield but Harry's spell scattered it to the four winds and struck the masked man in the throat. He was blasted backwards into a row of chocolate bars and remained slowed, on the floor.

Harry dived to his left, behinds a rack of magazines and a second later was deluged in scraps of paper. He ducked his arm around the tattered stand and before he could cast anything his wand was flying out of his hand. It struck the wall to his left a fell to the floor, far too far away to reach.

"Come out Harry." Gulmont said quietly. There was no choice now. He had to run. Focusing on home he apparated. Nothing happened. He was still in the shop, there must be anti-apparition wards up.

Taking a deep breath Harry stepped purposefully into the open just in front of the doors. Gulmont smiled evilly. He was roughly grabbed by the two Death Eaters who were still standing and forced to his knees.

Gulmont shoved the little boy out in front of him. "I am going to kill you Harry Potter," he said. Harry glared back at him, but his confidence was outward only. His heart was smashing against his ribcage. "But I'm going to make you watch these die first." Sweat trickled down the furrows in Harry's face. If he only had his wand. They wouldn't be expecting it. He was sure that he could take three of them. _Accio wand_, he thought. Nothing happened.

"Avada Kedavra," cried Gulmont. The boy crumpled.

"NO!" _ACCIO WAND_! Harry roared in his mind, surprising even himself, his wand slammed into his hand.

"RELASHIO." He roared. The two men holding him were blasted off of him and he dodged out of the way of the killing curse that Gulmont had shot at him. "SECTUMSEMPRA." Gulmont fell back. Harry felt pain blasted into his arm and side, and was rocked forward, out of the way of a second killing curse. He dived out of the door, agony flaring down his left, and with a CRACK apparated home.

He appeared behind Ron and Hermione who were kissing passionately. Ron had his wand pointed at Harry moments after he arrived, no doubt alerted by his apparition.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, she leapt forwards and helped Harry down to his knees, he winced as he fell.

"What happened?" asked Ron. Hermione lifted her hands back away from Harry looking horrified as her right hand came away soaked in blood. Harry looked down to his left side. He could see his ribs through a gash in his side, and there was a slash, opposite the first, on the inside of his left arm. He nearly threw up at the sight.

"Death Eaters… At the shop," he gasped. He grabbed Ron's arm. "Get… the Ministry."

"Sure," he said, but did not stand up and apparate away. Instead he pulled Harry down on his good side and pulled his clothes away from his wounds. "Hermione? Can you heal this?"

"I…" she looked up at Ron. "I…" Drawing her wand she started casting spells.

"The Ministry, Ron."

"Yeah I will." Was his infuriating response.

Harry felt the pain lesson a bit from his side. But not disappear. It took five more attempts before the wound closed. Leaving behind an ugly scar, jagged and white.

"Thank you." Harry said to Hermione. "Now will you go and tell the Aurors?"

Ron nodded and left before Harry slumped onto his back and groaned.

The one called Gulmont was healed and then revived his unconscious Death Eaters and left quickly.

"The ministry will be here soon for sure," one of them said. They exited, murmuring about punishment, and popped away.

"SHITE! That hurt!" exploded the man with dirty blonde hair rising off balance to his knees. His hands came up tenderly to probe his face, he felt his shattered nose and eye socket, sensing the shards of bone fragment moving against his touch and causing his nerve endings to flare like a poker stirring a fire. He drew in a sharp intake of breathe at the pain.

"Here," said the woman with long thick red hair, crawling across to him. She pulled a well hidden wand from her trousers and waved it at the man's face. He let out a sigh of relief as he felt his face heal and pleasant warmth, like the heat of the sun on a cold day, settled on him for a moment.

"Thank you," he murmured. "You're going to have to teach me how to do that."

She chuckled gently at him, tenderly cupping his cheek in one of her soft hands. He knew she could not teach him how to use a wand. He was totally magic-less, he only knew of it due to his wife, in his opinion, an incredibly talented witch, who even now, was helping him to his feet.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes." She brushed off her knees then shook out her hair; it fell down over her shoulders in waves and curls.

He took her hand and held it close. "The four of them are safe. We should head home, or to Headquarters."

"Where first?" she asked.

He looked around at what was left of the shop, and the dead disordered on the floor. "Headquarters I think."

She nodded and a moment later they stepped out of the shop and were gone.

**A/N : I want to thank you all for reviewing, I got some really nice ones from the last chapter. I hope you like this one too. Its short... But fiery. lol Thanks alot.**


	20. Arrest

**Arrest**

"I'm going to go to the shop," Hermione told Ron quietly. Harry was asleep upstairs; it had taken seconds for him to fall into unconsciousness. He had lost a lot of blood. But he had had time to tell her that there were injured people who were alone and helpless, and people who were dead. He had said something about a child, and Hermione decided that she should go and look. She found Harry's cloak and waited for Ron to return.

"I'll come with you."

"No, you should stay here with Harry," she told him firmly, sometimes you had to be like that with Ron. "Don't worry I've got the cloak."

"But the Aurors will be there soon there's no need for you to go."

"I might be able to help before the Aurors get there." She threw the cloak around her and stepped out into the frigid air. She passed the old creaking car and broke into a run. She stopped outside the shop, silence hung in the air; apparently the locals had not seen or heard anything. She drew her wand and stepped into the shop, she drew in a gasp through a hand that clamped to her mouth under the cloak. A sob escaped from her lips. There on the floor in front of her was the child Harry had mumbled about, his young eyes stared blankly at the ceiling; his face was set in a mask of fear with tears dried down each cheek.

Hermione glanced around seeing only bodies. There was no one that she could help here. Brushing away a tear she stepped back outside. Quite suddenly there were wizards and witches appearing nearby. Hermione pointed her wand before remembering that she could not be seen. They were formed into two groups and she deduced quickly that the people to her right were from the ministry, and the people to her left were from the Order of the Phoenix. Lupin was at the head of a group of six people, Kingsley Shacklebolt stood by his side, his dark brow frowning at the sight of the Aurors. Behind him was Tonks, her hair set short and business like. Almost too small to see Dedalus Diggle was near by, next to Professor Flitwick, who was within an inch of Diggle's height. Lastly behind him, her eyes nervous, was a young woman with deep red hair that fell in curls, who Hermione did not recognise.

The woman at the head of the Aurors was far too familiar for comfort. The sight of Delores Umbridge, her squat frame and squashed face, sent pins of hatred down Hermione's spine and she was sorely temped to curse her from underneath the invisibility cloak. She restrained, knowing that she would only get into trouble; she was mature enough to admit that the fact that Umbridge had enough Aurors behind her to take over a small country helped influence her decision too.

"You!" she heard Umbridge menace at Lupin.

"I assure you Delores, I am here only to help," replied Lupin, his voice the very essence of politeness, but the loathing visible in his eyes changed the exchange considerably.

"To help?" she scorned, her eyes taking in the drawn wands, she smiled. "Oh no… I don't believe that for a minute, there's only one reason a werewolf would be rushing to the scene of a Death Eater attack."

"Madam," said Kingsley slowly, "do you really think that we would be here to _help_ Death Eaters?"

"We will deal with you later Shacklebolt, you can be sure of that." She flicked her hand up in signal to the Aurors. "Arrest them."

"Really I must protest!" piped in Hermione's little professor.

The Aurors, she noticed, seemed less than willing. "You want us to _arrest_ these people?" asked the Auror closest to Umbridge. Hermione noticed then that she had seen him before, at Grimmauld place once. He too was in the Order.

"I do Poppet."

"Madam, two of these people are Aurors," he said as patiently as he could, yet obviously struggling, "two were Hogwarts professors and one is young enough to be my daughter-"

"Are you questioning me Poppet?"

"I am!" he said strongly. "I fought side by side with these people during the invasion of Hogwarts."

Umbridge bristled and her voice became perilously calm. "These people obviously know more than they are letting on, and I _will_ find out what. Now _arrest_ them or you will find yourself _with_ them."

Hermione noticed Umbridge watching the Auror and miss the small shrug and nod that Lupin gave him. Straightening his back Poppet drew his wand.

Harry stood in Dumbledore's office; the old man's portrait hung on the wall and gazed calmly down at him.

"I confess myself rather disappointed Harry," the portrait started. "You do not visit nearly often enough."

Harry was going to say, "I'm sorry. I've been busy. I'll try to come more often," but then he remembered that he could not come to visit because McGonagall was frozen by the door. As soon as she entered his mind there was a knock at the door and he turned to see her enter.

"Potter. What are you doing in my office?"

Harry gestured towards Dumbledore, which seemed enough in the way of explanation for McGonagall.

"Hello Minerva," said Dumbledore munificently, "I'm disappointed in you too."

"Well if Potter had done a better job and kept the Death Eaters out of the school I would be able to come and talk to you more," she protested childishly.

"Yes… You did do quite a poor job there didn't you Harry."

Harry tried to disagree, but he could not seem to make his voice do anything.

"I rather expected more of you."

"No!" Harry tried to say, but all that came out was a hoarse kind of wheeze as guilt slowly began to crush him.

"How long has he been like this?" Harry heard Ginny's voice to his right; he turned just in time to see her disappear.

"And that little boy today… just terrible, if only you had been quicker Harry."

He struggled harder this time but still only managed a short rough exhale.

"We should get him to Madam Pomfrey." Ron said from his side before fading away.

"It was your fault I died as well now I think about it… You knew Snape was up to something… But you let him get away with it."

"Aaah!" he managed to get out. "Aaah…. No… No… NO!"

Harry sat up shivering violently, his own voice having woken him from his nightmare. Ginny sat next to him on his bed cross legged. Ron was kneeling at the edge of the bed looking a bit worried.

"You alright mate?"

"C-c-cold," he said still shivering, his head spun with dizziness.

"Here," said Ginny moving forward very business like, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, "Hermione said you lost a lot of blood, it made you very tired, and it's probably what's making you cold now. Ron, get him a cup of hot chocolate to warm him up."

He nodded and waved his wand at his other hand. In said hand appeared a mug, rather well conjured for Ron, but in it resided a steaming purple liquid, quite unlike hot chocolate. Harry managed a short laugh through his trembling.

"Err… Sorry mate, I wouldn't drink that if I were you. I'll just go and make some the muggle way."

Days passed before Harry got his strength back, but he still found himself coming over weak, faint, tired and cold now and then. Having no idea what the curse that hit him was, he was not sure whether this was an after effect of magic or the more mundane reason that he had got himself cut good and proper.

Worry could have had a lot to do with it too. He had a plan for getting the members of the Order out of prison, which is where they were, but he would need all of his brain power to persuade Scrimgeor to let them go, and he was not at his best at the moment. It had been Hermione's idea to wait, he himself had wanted to leap up and run to Scrimgeor as soon as he had heard, he might of too had he not been too dizzy to stand.

Then there was the business of the funerals of the muggles who had been killed. They would be taking place later that day, and he was going to go to them. He had been to far too many funerals of late.

The funerals were all done at once. The ministry had persuaded the police that it was an armed robbery that got out of control. It was hard for Harry standing in the Graveyard, he could not help but blame himself; the Death Eaters would not have been there if it had not been for him.

Yet through the funeral the one thing that overpowered all of his other thought was that his parents graves were right here somewhere. He had put off going to visit them, once he had got to the house he had been too busy, and then after Mr and Mrs Weasley had been killed he was almost frightened of going, as though it would make it more real to see their graves. But long before the funeral was over Harry left to wander among the graves. It did not take him long to see 'Lily Potter' inscribed on a stone and there next to it was 'James Potter'. Their graves were not fancy, they were simple, they had not been buried by their friends he guessed, but by the other villagers.

Harry knelt in front of the graves and stayed there for a long time. This was the closest to his parents that he had ever been and although it had taken him a long time to visit, he now did not want to leave. If only he could have had a life with them… how different things could have been. But they had died so that he could have a life to live. But he could not live… not properly, he would be fighting, and fighting some more, until he killed Voldemort and perhaps, just maybe he could stop someone else from growing up parentless. Hot anger flashed through him and he swore to his parents' graves that he would stop Voldemort, and he had never felt more determined to do so in his life.

He knelt there while the sun set, not noticing as the cold set in and the beginnings of a mist set in.

"You are too predictable Potter."

Harry recognised that voice like a slap to the face, the cold sardonic tones, and the disdain he could almost hear, Harry's eyes snapped up in a flash. Harry did not pause for thought, his rage would not let him; he drew his wand without hesitation, this man he hated as much as Voldemort, this man he would not waver for.

"Avada Ke-"

Before he had even started the curse, Snape was already preparing his own and Harry's wand left his hand as he was thrown to his side.

"Like I said, too predictable."

All thought of wands forgotten Harry got up and lunched himself, with a primal cry of fury, over his father's grave stone, at the throat of Snape. But before he got there he was hit by a spell and flung backwards into the mist. He struck the ground and rolled over and over, a headstone bringing him to rest sharply.

Snape strode out of the mist ahead of him, both wands in his hand.

Harry stared at the ground quickly so that Snape could not gleam any information from him. He had called his wand to him before… that was all he needed to do now; he just had to get his wand.

"You are pathetic Potter," Snape drawled happily, "how do you ever expect to challenge the Dark Lord if you can not stand up to me?" He took a step closer. "Luckily for you, I am not here to kill you." _Accio wand_, he thought, _Accio wand_. "I am here to give you information."

"Like what? How I'm going to die? I will kill you for what you did, and I'll send Voldemort to meet you in the afterlife." His eyes jerked up and he knew that Snape saw clear as day the truth behind those words.

"You think I _wanted _to kill Dumbledore? I killed him or I died."

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED." Harry roared. "You should have died rather than betray him!"

Snape glared at him but his reply came out cold. "The Dark Lord cannot be killed. Not yet anyway. As it happens though, I know how he can be killed. I don't expect you to have ever heard of it, but Voldemort created a Horcrux. As his most trusted servant I have been given the privilege of guarding it. It is in an Old Lady's house in London, 64 Peckham road. Go at night, that's Bellatrix's watch. You need to destroy the Horcrux before you can kill Voldemort."

Harry saw through his plan straight away. Voldemort must know that Harry was searching for his Horcruxes, he must have known since they had captured Rookwood and the statue. That was why he wanted Gryffindor's sword: to make a new Horcrux. He had sent Snape with the illusion of giving him knowledge about the downfall of Voldemort so that Harry would run headfirst into a trap where Voldemort could kill him and make his next Horcrux.

Harry looked back at the ground, pretending to consider what Snape had said, while struggling with all his might to get his wand. And there it was, it was soaring across the gap between them, a look of shock on Snape's face; he had not seen that coming. Harry grabbed his wand and shot a curse at Snape, who ducked and returned fire with a spell Harry did not recognise but he dodged and rolled behind a tombstone, he stopped his roll and sprung out again. Snape's wand was pointed at the other side of the headstone as though he was expecting Harry to have rolled out the other end and Harry was buoyed; if he could just stop Snape from reading his mind he could take him.

"_Expelliarmus_."

Snape's wand flew through the air, but even before it had touched the ground Snape had disappirated. "_Accio wand_," Harry heard from behind him. He turned just in time to see Snape, wand in hand disappear.

"NO!" Harry cried. "NO. COME BACK. Come back you coward." But he did not return and so with one final word to his parents graves Harry left for home feeling cheated and angry.

**A/N : This one took a while to come out… sorry about that Christmas has been a busy time… Good though. **


	21. Get to Work

**Get to Work**

Time passed quickly in the next few days, it took Harry a long time to calm back down after his fight with Snape. But it had invigorated him, he had nearly beaten his old Professor, he had been so close… But he used his anger well, it gave him energy, and the desire to do something, and so three days later he, Ron and Hermione stood outside of the office of Rufus Scrimgeour being called in. They sat in a line on one side of a desk and the Minister of Magic sat on the other surveying them carefully but with a half concealed smugness about him.

"So Harry, what can I do for you today?"

"You can tell me why my friends have been arrested." Harry started bluntly.

Scrimgeour lifted an eyebrow. "Harry, you don't expect me to give out Ministry secrets do you?"

"No," butted in Hermione, "we expect you to release them. They are on our side, they fought with your Aurors at Hogwarts. They have broken no law, and you have no right to hold them."

"On the contrary we have every reason to hold them; they turned up at the scene of a crime, unannounced, moments after we were informed ourselves, that there had been an attack."

"Yeah," said Ron, "and it was me who told you about it. Was it too much for you to think that I could have told _them_ too?" He hadn't, but it made for a good argument.

"We are very grateful for telling us, thank you, and yet, you did not tell them, did you?" How did he know that? Thought Harry. "And it leads to another question… How did _you _know?"

"Because I was there," said Harry.

"You were there? During the attack? Interesting." He leant back in his chair and tangled his fingers. "Still, you have not said anything to make me consider releasing anyone."

"But you have no _right_! You just want give them a bad name so that you'll look better." cried Hermione.

Scrimgeour did not even pause her a glance, he was concentrating on Harry, and Harry knew exactly what Scrimgeour wanted, and he had to struggle not to plaster a big grin on his face because this was exactly what _he_ wanted now too… a way into the Ministry.

"Then what if I gave you something?" Harry asked feeling that he should at least go through the motions and make it seem like it was the Minister's own idea.

"Gave me something? Are you suggesting that you bribe me to release the prisoners?"

"What if I gave you what you've wanted from me since you came to office?"

Scrimgeour nodded. "Yes ok!"

"What?"

That had been too easy.

"Yes… The two Aurors will lose their jobs of course… and for six people's release it still seems like you get the better end of the deal. You popping in every so often for six people's freedom… No, I think I need something more… I want you to work here."

Ah… better and better… But he had to play along. He could see Ron and Hermione sharing a glance to his side.

"Work here?" he asked.

"Do you want to put shackles on him as well?" asked Ron, "Maybe teach him to do a few tricks; he'd be as much a prisoner as Lupin is." Harry felt that that was a nice touch.

"No," replied the Minister with disdain, "we will put you into Auror training… that's what you always wanted isn't it?"

Harry swallowed but only to try and stop how happy he was feeling at how well this was going. "Well, yes!"

"Yes, and imagine what the public would think, eh, Harry Potter training up to defend them," said Scrimgeour briskly standing up, "oh, and we will make a public announcement together on Friday and you will start here on Monday morning."

"A-a public announcement? W-What?" He thought he might have turned a little green.

"It will hardly do having you work here if no body knows about it." The minister started limping towards the door.

"That was not part of the bargain," said Hermione standing up to face Scrimgeour, "but, release Stan Shunpike too and Harry will do it."

The Minister opened the door and stood staring at Hermione, who did not move. "You are a foolish, foolish girl." But he looked to Harry and saw that he would stand by Hermione on this. "But it is acceptable." He ushered them out.

It wasn't until they got home that Harry let out a whoop.

And so Friday came, and Harry went to the Ministry with Ron and Hermione and he got up in front of reporters and Scrimgeour told everyone that Harry was going to come and work for the Ministry, and that he was getting Auror training, and would be working closely with Scrimgeour. Harry said little, he was sure the Minister had planned it that way so that he would not have a chance to muck things up. He told everyone that he had always wanted to be an Auror and he let it be known that he had already stopped a number of innocent people from being wrongly accused. "My godfather, Sirius Black, was a prisoner of Azkaban for twelve years; he never had a trial; never had a chance to prove his innocence, but he was imprisoned wrongly and I do not wish for anyone else to have to suffer that."

Harry was sure that the Minister was unpleased about him telling reporters that people had been wrongly arrested but he could not let on in the middle of a crowded room and told them that he and Harry shared their views on this topic… tosh.

After the announcement, photo's, and subsequent questions - "Just a quick word with the Chosen One?" "Mr Potter please, is it true you've found love at last?" "Were you really there when Albus Dumbledore died?" "Minister, don't you think he's too young to be an Auror?" "What will you do about rumours that there was a revolt within the Auror division? Maybe they don't want Potter," – Harry and his friends were shown through to level two of the Ministry where the Aurors were located; two of the segmented offices were stripped bare, the rest were buzzing with activity. Scrimgeour took the three friends down a corridor made out of office blocks and to a door then knocked twice. A burley man, with long hair, opened it and seeing who it was, ushered them in quickly before shutting the door firmly.

"Minister, can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?" Scrimgeour shook his head.

"Anything for you children?" Hermione raised an offended eyebrow, and Ron scowled but Harry met the man's gaze easily and shook his head… He was being tested by this man, insulted to see what he would do.

"Gawain," started Scrimgeour, "This is Harry Potter. Harry, this is Gawain Robards, head of the Aurors, as of Monday, your boss. I'll leave you two to get to know each other; I'll be in my office if you need me. Thank you Harry, I'm sure I will see you around."

Scrimgeour limped away and Gawain held out his hand and Harry shook it breifly. "Come, I'll show you to your office, I believe you know Shacklebolt, you have the one that we vacated for him."

"When will they be released?" asked Hermione.

Gawain turned and took her in properly for the first time. "After I've shown Mr Potter around," he said politely but bluntly, as though he was not happy to be here, but did it anyway, "You and Mr Weasley may go and see them while I talk to Mr Potter if you wish. They are through that door over there, next to the gents." He pointed towards the far corner. Harry was sure that Hermione and Ron had never been introduced to Gawain Robards, and so Harry guessed he had found out as much about all of them as he could before they had met.

Hermione nodded, "Ok. We'll see you when you're done Harry."

Harry nodded to her and then turned back to the head Auror who motioned for Harry to follow him, after winding through alley's and corridors made by the offices, they entered a room that looked like an empty classroom. "You will come here at nine o'clock, Monday morning; I'll have an Auror here to guide you through the day. You'll have a lot of work to do; you will be joining a group of young men and women who have been training hard since September, if anyone else were to think of starting half way through I would expect them to fail miserably and be beaten by the other students at every turn… But I have heard stories about you Mr Potter, it seems that you are capable of things many far older and better trained wizards would not dream of." He paused for a second. "You can cast a Patronus I have heard, have duelled more Death Eaters than most of the force… and have come away from You-Know-Who more times than anyone I know with barely a scratch on you."

"There were scratches." Harry spoke for the first time. "And much more."

"It is true then, you have fought him and stood your ground? How did you do it?"

Harry looked at him suspiciously, and answered carefully, "It had to do with a large amount of luck, and even more help."

"Ah, but you are being modest surely," he replied, he waved a hand negligently, "anyway, enough of that, you will have aptitude tests on Monday to determine your skills. I am hoping you would not be disinclined to participate in a friendly duel with one of our Aurors."

Harry was unsure as to that, the only people he had fought properly were enemies, and he did not think they would ever constitute a proper duel. "Ok. But I'm afraid I don't know the rules."

Robards looked happy. "Ah that's nothing to worry about. I'm intrigued though, as to why you fought so hard for the release of Kingsley and the others. It seems you've given up a lot, having to come and work here, for their release, and truth be told, I think they would have been released eventually anyway."

"Did you agree with their arrest? I hear the Aurors were not too impressed when they were ordered to arrest them."

Robards thought for a second before answering. "They know things that they shouldn't, and more besides that we don't know about. Two of them were Aurors, our own people, and I believe they are keeping secrets from us, secrets that could very well be vital to the downfall of He Who Must Not Be Named… I agree with the Aurors arrest, they have a duty and they made a bad call, but the others… They are civilians. Still they are all good people, trying to fight on the same side as us, we have suspected for a long time that they are part of a secret group of Dumbledore's," and he seemed to come to a revelation, "is that why you fight for them? Because of Dumbledore?"

"Those men and women have done more to stop Voldemort than anyone else I know," Robards surprised Harry by not even flinching at Voldemort's name, "they fought to keep Death Eaters out of Hogwarts, they are respected by your Aurors, and are good people. Whether they are keeping secrets about stopping Voldemort or not, they should never have been arrested, and I think that had anyone bar Umbridge led that group last week, they would not have been. They were imprisoned wrongly, and they are my friends; that is why I fight for them."

Gawain was smiling and nodded approvingly. Harry realised that he was half starting to like this man, who had seemed so distant and unfriendly at first. But he was wary, he did not think that he would meet many friends amongst the Aurors, they were too loyal to the Ministry on the most part.

"So what do I call you?" Harry asked, "Sir? Mr Robards? Gawain?"

"In public I'm 'Sir', around the office I'm 'Mr Robards', and in private I'm anything you bloody well like, on our own you can talk freely and suggest what you like, I might not listen and I might get angry but I'll never punish you for expressing your views, that holds true with all the other Aurors, you take orders from them… any and all of them, one of them tells you to do something you do it, and you do it then and there, understand?"

"Uh huh."

"Good, now then, let's go release your friends."

They all looked a little worse for wear in Harry's opinion. They had been treated well no doubt but they had still been prisoners. They sat in a room, Harry expected to see shackles on them but they were free of restraints. Ron and Hermione sat with Remus and broke off conversation when they entered.

Harry silently checked them all over for signs of harm but could not see any, as he got to the last person, a young woman sitting next to Tonks his eyes paused, he recognised her, and she had been with a man at the shop when it had been attacked. His eyes did a double take before he turned back to Lupin. "Are you all ok?" he asked.

"We're all fine thank you Harry."

Harry looked at Gawain who nodded. "Well, you may all go." And as simply as that, they were released. They left the Ministry and returned to the kitchen of Grimmauld place. Flitwick and Diggle both threw themselves up on chairs next to each other at the table looking thoroughly relieved to be back, and the red haired lady sat two seats away from them, she too seemed happy to be back, but drained and exhausted and sad.

"I hope you did not give him too much in return for our release," said Lupin reproachfully.

"What a way to thank someone for giving you your freedom," said Ron.

"Don't worry," said Harry to Lupin, "I gave him exactly what he wanted," Lupin scrunched up his face, "but it was exactly what I wanted too, which means we got something for nothing."

Tonks came and took Lupins hand. "Just what did you give him?" she asked.

"He put me in Auror training."

There were shocked faces all around, especially Tonks and Kinsley. "He gave you one of our jobs?" Kingsley asked slowly, as was his habit.

"I'm moving into your office on Monday… I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all Harry not at all, better you than any of the other rag tags in training at the moment."

"I've heard they're taking on any one nowadays," said Flitwick, making it sound as though his view of the world had dropped drastically because of it.

"Yeah, Harry proves that don't he, they're letting him start half way through the year, and with out any NEWT's," said Ron rummaging through the cupboards undoubtedly looking for food.

"I'm sure you'll do fine Harry," said Hermione encouragingly, sitting down opposite Flitwick, "I doubt any of _them_ have even fought seven Death Eaters by themselves." Harry could not help but glance to the yet unnamed lady accusingly, and she had the grace to look guilty. He had not been alone, and he had not known then that she and presumably the man with her were in the Order. That was three people in that shop, three people who could have resisted, and apart from one punch, he had fought on his own. What if she had of helped how many lives could have been saved, how much pain could he have been spared?

Lupin must have noticed his glance. "Harry I don't think you've met Laura yet, this is Laura Bonit, it was her and her husband who alerted us to the attack. Laura this is Harry Potter."

She inclined her head. He nodded back, but he was secretly angry at her, so he sat down a seat away from Hermione, as close to Laura as he could get without making it obvious that he wanted to talk to her.

Tonks had gone over near Ron to get food and she picked up a stack of plates for everyone, Harry flicked his wand under the table and they all clattered and smashed as they fell out of Tonks hands. "Sorry," she cried, "Sorry." But it had worked perfectly and everyone's attention was on her. Laura quickly went to help, or would have if Harry had not pulled her wrist back to the table and stopped her from moving. He was not holding her hard, just enough to stop her from rushing off, but she looked genuinely afraid of him.

"Why didn't you help?" he asked quietly so that no one would hear over the noise and commotion, but Hermione as she so often does, sniffed out trouble and was watching him with avid eyes.

Despite the conflicting emotions in her eyes, Laura's voice was steady. "Harry… There were seven of them…"

"I nearly beat them by myself –"

"I can't fight like you can, I can patch people up, but hurting them... I would have been killed."

"…Is your husband a muggle?" he could only think of one thing that would cause a man to attack a wizard with his fists when he was so out numbered and that was that he had no magic to fight with.

Laura nodded confusedly. "And yet even without any magic _he_ tried to struggle. _He_ did what _he_ could to save that little boy, if you had – if you – you could have saved him…"

"Harry," said Hermione laying a hand on his arm, but he shrugged it off in annoyance and raised his eyebrows at Laura for an explanation.

"I'm sorry," she said, Harry noticed tears in her eyes.

That apology was worthless to the little boy whose funeral Harry had gone to; worthless. What was a girl like this doing in the Order? She did not have the heart for it, or the courage, and it could have cost a little boy his life.

He got up and looked at his watch. "Ginny's about to finish work," he told Hermione, "I'm going to pick her up."

He heard her talking in hushed tones to Laura before he disappeared with a CRACK.

Monday was a very fun day. He followed Ginny through fireplace in the morning, and found Dawlish, the Auror who had been set to trail Dumbledore last year, sitting in his office waiting. Dawlish always seemed to be lumped with the worst jobs.

Still, he was polite to Harry and showed him around for the morning, taking him to the canteen for lunch where he met Ginny and spent a wonderful hour chatting merrily away to her, albeit amidst staring and pointing.

And then there was the duel. Harry was nervous, very nervous, he had done tests for them, reactions, problem solving, decision making, and all of which he had thought he had done quite well for, but now, for his last task of the day, Robards was going to make him fight Dawlish… and he had a crowd.

They stood in a training room, both of them at either end of an aisle that they were meant to fight down. 'Fat chance' Harry thought when he was told he had to stay on that strip of fabric: that would be like inviting Dawlish to hex him. But apparently he forfeited if he stepped off of it. The worse thing of all though, was that Ginny was in the crowd. He knew she would not mind if he lost… but he was honest enough with himself that he did not want Ginny to see him lose at anything. It made him incredibly nervous.

"Raise your wands." Harry heard a voice cry and hurriedly brought up his wand and saluted as he saw Dawlish do. "Let the duel begin."

Dawlish did not give any time for Harry to think, and shot a spell at Harry's midriff, he barely dodged in time. The crowd faded away in an instant. A second spell was coming before he had recovered from the first and he dropped to the ground to get out of its way, he cast a shield charm from the floor and deflected away the third curse while he stood. Now all Harry was concentrating on was the Auror.

"_Expelliarmus_."

Dawlish did not mutter a word but shot a red spell at him at the same time, they collided in the air and ricocheted off, one into the floor and one into the ceiling. Out of the flash of spells came a stunner and Harry ducked out of its way and shot a trip jinx from a crouch, but Dawlish blocked it contemptuously.

Harry stood and felt something behind him. He cast a shield charm and spun around to see the floor raising up and coming towards him like a wave. He shot a redactor curse at the middle of it and jumped through the hole as the wave passed. It broke once it was past him and after a moment of violent ripples the floor stilled. But Harry reacted quickly after it and shot a jet of flame at Dawlish, and then a jet of water right after it. He brushed away the fire easily, but could not change the spell fast enough to accommodate water too and was deluged in liquid. Using the second of time it had given Harry he ran closer to Dawlish and shouted out a stunner. Dawlish dodged the shout having given him warning. Well Harry could soon deal with that… "_Muffliato_," he cast, Dawlish shook his head to try and get rid of the buzzing but it would not budge.

But as though the sound had given him a stroke of inspiration he sent a swarm of bees out of the end of his wand at Harry. He turned and ran quickly away from them, before remembering something he had learned in his primary school. He turned and shot another jet of water from his wand, bigger than the last and hit the whole swarm in one go. The bees were taken out and the water carried on past straight for Dawlish. The water, which would have been strong enough to blast Dawlish from his feet, parted down the middle and a spell shot out of the gap. Harry ducked, and then had to dive out of the way of a second spell and then rolled out the way of a third. He was in trouble now… and he thought he had lost until he caught a glimpse of Ginny in the crowed, her lip between her teeth, with a look of excited anticipation, that was half anxiety, and he cast a spell that could do nothing to harm Dawlish; but the presence of a large silver stag is enough to put anybody off and as it dissolved in front of him, the disarming jink Harry had cast after it caught Dawlish and sent his wand flying away, and within a second Harry had it in his hand… He had won… Ha ha… He had won. And the effort was made worth while when they got home and Ginny leapt into his arms and wrapped her legs around him.

The first month of work for Harry was a rollercoaster of dead boring learning about sneaking and tactics and concealment, in which Harry was sorely tempted to throw on his cloak and see if any body noticed that he had disappeared, and then they would have days of training to cast spells, having mock duels and getting worn out. Harry realised that he really had had more fights that almost anyone else in the training school, they were all older than him, and all the young men were stronger than him, although there was also one young women who looked like she could peel Harry like an apple, but never the less he was a better dueller… but he would not put his all into it… he just did not feel the danger, the adrenaline or the fear that he got against Death Eaters, and he got hit many times due to laziness before Christmas.

The holidays were a very quiet affair. Ron and Hermione were at home all day looking through books and getting bored, so they decorated the cottage, and put up a tree. But Harry could not look at it without thinking that they should all be at the Burrow. They exchanged small gifts on Christmas day, and had a nice meal, and then the next day they were back to trying to think of places where Voldemort could have hidden the cup, but without a new woollen jumper to wear.

As Christmas disappeared into New Year, and the following week or two, Harry kept thinking that maybe… just maybe… he should tell his friends about what Snape had told him. Because they just had no other leads.

**A/N : I got NO reviews for the last chapter '0', zilch, nothing, was it really that bad??? This ones longer than most of the other chapters… so there must be something to say about it. Till Next time.**


	22. Another Step

**Another Step**

Harry sat staring into the flames of a dieing fire, the heat was starting to leave the room, and his body was shivering every now and then, but he did not notice. He sat on the sofa with his back straight and a scowl on his face, feeling like everything was being bundled onto of him all at once. His life had become so chaotic, and he had so many things to think about that all it seemed he was doing was worrying.

It was late January and a cold snap had hit the hills, there was a covering, inches high, of snow, nothing like the snow they got in Hogwarts, but it was still enough to make everything feel colder than it was. Harry normally loved snow, it reminded him of good times at Hogwarts, but all it was doing this year was depressing him.

He did not notice when more logs were added to the fire, or when Ginny moved up behind him. She stretched out a delicate hand and he felt her fingers slowly entwine themselves in his hair, the scowl dropped of his face, his eyes closed and all the tension in his body fell away as she gently ran her hands through his hair and down his neck. With his eyes closed he realised just how tired he was.

"What's on you mind?" Ginny asked him softly still caressing tenderly.

"Lots," said Harry letting out a sardonic snort. Ginny waited. "Everything," he carried on dropping his head forward. She swung herself over the back of the settee and curled up next to him, adding even more wood to the fire with her wand, and snuggling into Harry's side.

"Tell me," she said.

He did not say anything for a little while, but then neither did Ginny, he just twirled her hair around his fingers, revelling in its softness. "I had this whole little plan in my head that I'd come up with as soon as I thought of using the veil to get rid of the Horcruxes. I thought, you can get a job at the ministry and then we'll find the cup and you can let us in… But then I got the opportunity to get a job there too, and I leapt at the chance, I figured two of us would be able to get in no problem. But now that I've been working there… well, it's going to be hard isn't it. And Umbridge is watching me like a hawk, and now that she's head of Magical Law Enforcement she's got a whole lot of power; she keeps trying to discredit me, or embarrass me, or something, and I've got to keep on trying to wriggle my way out of her schemes. It feels like I'm playing chess against Ron... All my class mates hate me because I showed up late and can still best any one of them in a duel, never mind that the best I can do is make my head disappear during concealment… And then there's Scrimgeour, I've got to meet with him so often, and we just sit and chat about stupid stuff while it looks like we're doing something important to everyone else. Then he'll ask what Dumbledore and I were doing the night he died or something and the reporters just won't leave me alone…" he sighed, and rested his head on top of Ginny's, he felt so much better to be talking about this, "and I'm helping Poppet, an Auror in the Order, find out little bits and pieces of information about Voldemort from the Ministry while I'm at work, and I'm telling Remus everything I find out, but it's a worry, because there's a spy in the Order and he doesn't know who it is. This Auror Poppet, apparently Laura Bonit is his daughter, and he gave me a right dressing down because of what I said to her… and he was right, I was horrible to her, and now I feel completely guilty.

"Remus is going to remove the fidelius charm around Grimmauld place and cast a new one because at the moment they can't take anyone new into the Order because who ever they find can't get into Headquarters. But what if the spy tells Voldemort when it's going to happen and they attack, we could lose the Order, everyone… they're all going to be there when it's cast…" Harry was not sure if it was the heat from the fire, or the fact that he felt so much better about getting his worries off of his chest, but he could feel warmth flowing through him.

"I think I thought it would be easy you know? Like someone would lead me everywhere I needed to go… like Dumbledore did. That I wouldn't have to try that hard. How stupid is that?" He was not expecting an answer and he did not want one, and Ginny always knew what he wanted and stayed silent. "I've been keeping a secret from you all."

Ginny pulled back quickly, just enough so that she could look him in the eye. "What is it?"

"That night that I was at my parents graves and Snape attacked… well he told me something… he told me that he'd found out that Voldemort had created a Horcrux and that he had been sent to guard it with Bellatrix at a old muggle ladies house. I thought it was a trap… I still do… I didn't want any of you to know because you would have wanted to go, and I didn't want any of you to be caught. But we've got nothing else, no more ideas. Ron and Hermione have been trying to find places where Voldemort might have hidden a Horcrux while we've been at work, but it's been pointless, they've found nothing, and how can they? It's not like he wrote it all down somewhere. This is all we've got left."

Ginny brought up her hand and cupped Harry's cheek in her palm. He shivered at the welcome contact. "Well… that one is a bit of a problem I'll give you that… but the rest… well that's nothing. As for Umbridge, if you think it's like playing chess with Ron then let Ron play on your side. Tell him what she's doing; he and Hermione will come up with something to stop her I'm sure. And as for getting into the Ministry, I've been thinking about that, and I think if we all work together we can do it. I've got a plan." She grinned. "So leave that problem to me. I'll take care of the reporters too… just make sure you never start or finish work without me… I'll look after you." Harry felt an amazing burst of heat through his chest at her words. "As for Laura Bonit, she lives in Godric's Hollow, all you need to do is go round and apologise, Hermione said she was a nice lady, and who can resist _you_?" she smirked and Harry smiled for the first time in days and rested his forehead against Ginny's.

"I love you Ginny." She smiled and her face lit up a rose red.

"I love you too, Harry."

The next evening after work, Harry knocked on a plain plastic door with a small glass pane at head height. Ginny was staying at home while he came round, he wanted to say sorry on his own, and Hermione and Ron were still out somewhere, trying to find more books to search through no doubt. Moments later he heard footsteps and the door opened to reveal Mr Bonit dressed in a green shirt and jeans.

"Hello," said Harry.

The man stared at him for a second with a frown on his face, Harry realised that while he was not that tall, and not particularly large, and had no magical power to speak of; he exuded a sense of menace. "Hello," he said finally.

"I was uh… I was wondering whether I could speak to Laura."

There was another pause, while Mr Bonit appraised him. "Come in," he said and stepped to the side to allow Harry entry.

"Thank you."

The man shut the door behind him and directed Harry through to a thoroughly muggle looking sitting room where he sat down on a sofa. It was not a very large room and it looked thoroughly odd, there was a TV in the corner, and then right next to it a picture of the couple's wedding, which was blatantly magical, and then a old featured fire place, that would have fitted into any century old house, with a mobile phone sitting on charge on the mantle piece; what Harry recognised as a sneak scope sat on a bookshelf spinning but silent, while just below it an electrical socket was fixed into the wall holding a plug attached to a CD player, it was completely off the wall to see the muggle and wizarding worlds combined this way, but he found himself liking it. "Laura's still at work, she wont be back for about half an hour I should think. Tea? Coffee?"

"A cup of tea would be nice thank you, Mr Bonit. Where does Laura work?"

The man held out his hand. "My name's Daniel. St. Mungo's."

Harry shook it. "Harry. She's a healer?"

"I know who you are. A Mediwitch." He turned and walked back into the hall and down into the kitchen where Harry could hear him clattering around. He returned a few minutes later with two cups and handed Harry one then sat down on a smaller sofa. Daniel reached into a pocket and pulled out a slip of paper which he handed to Harry.

"A new Fidelious charm has been put on the headquarters. You and your friends need to read that." Harry had not even noticed that he could no longer remember where headquarters were. They must have done it very recently, and with out him knowing.

"Who's the secret keeper?"

Daniel thought before he spoke, he did that a lot, Harry thought. "Custos has agreed to be the secret keeper."

Harry nodded. "I'm afraid I've never really met him before."

"He's proven his worth in the Order. He's been there far longer than I… He can just be a little too inquisitive for his own good sometimes, but he's in a low risk job and he spends lots of time at headquarters, he's in a safe position. What did you want to talk to Laura about?" he asked suddenly.

"I er… I wanted to apologise for something." Harry replied.

Daniel nodded. "About what you said at headquarters after her release?" Harry nodded. "I have to thank you for that… freeing my wife that is." Harry shook his head and shrugged it off. "No, no, I really am grateful. Laura is one of the kindest, most caring people you will ever meet… she's just not much of a fighter."

"Well you saved all our lives that day in the shop so maybe we're even."

Daniel raised an eyebrow condescendingly. "Oh _I _saved everyone. Yes I must have imagined you taking on seven Death Eaters on your own."

"That's just it though isn't it? I wasn't on my own; you tried to save the little boy… He… the Death Eater had his wand to the boys head, I was ready to give myself up for him… and if I'd done that they probably would have killed everyone before they left. It was stupid but I would have done it. But you freed him and so I carried on fighting… so thank you."

Daniel's eyebrow was still higher than it should have been. "You're a pot calling a kettle black. Everyone plays there part, and our parts are to get sooty."

Harry nodded with a wry smile. "Exactly, everyone plays their part… once I realised that, I realised how wrong I'd been to have a go at Laura –"

Daniel flicked his eyes down at his watch. "She'll be back any minute I'm going to go and make her a cuppa." He got up and left, leaving Harry to swill the cold dregs in the bottom of his cup… He was a little nervous if he was honest with himself.

He heard a pop a couple of minutes later announcing Mrs Bonit back into the house and it did not take long for her to step into the living room, in her white uniform, followed closely by her husband. Daniel sat back where he had been before and Laura sat down leaning on him and curling her legs up under her, cupping a mug of tea in her hands to warm them. Harry could not help but notice a similarity to how he and Ginny had sat with each other yesterday.

"Hello," she said shyly.

Harry cleared his throat. "Er… Hi, listen, I ah… I know it was a little while ago but I said some things to you that… that I wish I hadn't, and I'm sorry."

Laura was shaking her head. "No, no, no, you've got nothing to apologise for… you got me free, and you were right, I could have helped but I was scared… I was scared and I- I- didn't want Daniel to be hurt –" Daniel turned his chiselled face to look at her soft round one, adoringly as the fire across the room from Harry exploded scattering sparks across the carpet, and a huge silvery wolf erupted out of it a dove straight at Harry. He rocked back in his seat, never having received a message by patronus before and not sure exactly what was happening.

He heard Tonks' voice, _Harry, Hermione has been hurt; she's at St. Mungos, come quick._

Harry stood up. "Hermione's hurt… Can I use your fire?" he asked quickly.

"Of course," said Laura standing up quickly, she put her cup down on the coffee table as Harry leapt over it and threw a pinch of powder into the fire from a cup on top of the mantel piece.

He fell out of the grate on the other side and landed on his hands and knees, Laura must have come through right behind him because she tripped over his feet and landed on his back, her hair spilling over his head and in front of his eyes.

"Sorry," she grunted as she got off of him.

Harry did not spare any time, and shot off towards the desk where there was a huge queue, ignoring all the pointing and whispering that immediately started up, "_Harry Potter see his scar?-_""_No can't be-_""_it is!_" Laura grabbed his arm. "Calm down and give me a sec and I'll find out where she is." Eyes wide Harry watched Laura go behind reception and search through scrolls of some sort, chatting amiably to the witch at the desk. "Come on, come on, come on," he whispered. She came back seconds later and led Harry to a lift.

When they were inside Harry asked, "Is she ok? What happened?" A wizard gave him what he must have thought was a discreet glance but when he noticed Harry's scar his eyes popped open and he stared shamelessly.

"I don't know… She's in the ward for animal bites," Laura whispered leaning closer to him.

Harry's heart plummeted and he could feel his hands shaking… He searched his brain trying to remember whether it was a full moon tonight or not. One of his worst fears was that one of his friends was hurt because of what they were helping him with. It seemed like an eternity before the lift doors opened… His heart felt like it was going to beat itself right out of his chest.

"Relax," said Laura, "she's not in an intensive care ward, so she can't be hurt that badly."

Harry darted out of the doors as soon as they opened on the right floor and then had to wait for Laura to get off and lead him again. Half way up the corridor she was leading him down he noticed a tiny child bawling at the top of her voice clutching the foot of a teddy bear, and quite clearly lost. Laura flashed a look at Harry, "Down the hall through those doors, take a left and she's in the third ward on the right…" She knelt down next to the little girl, "Well now sweetheart," she said in a voice like honey, "what are you doing out here on your own then?"

Harry went to dart off but stopped… He realised that this was what Laura did, she looked after people, and he felt guilty again for having ever felt angry at her. He turned. "Listen Laura… I'm really, really sorry about before, I –"

"Don't worry about it Harry," she told him over the little girls crying shoulder, she smiled. "Go on you gimp! Go check Hermione's ok!"

He turned and dashed off.

"Hermione!" he called out loudly as he saw her in propped up on a bed. She was smiling which was a good sign but her torso was wrapped in bandages. Ron sat close by in a chair on the far side of the bed and a person, vaguely recognisable as a woman sat opposite him, a moment later its warped and ugly features moulded revealing Tonks, who must have been entertaining Hermione. They were in the same ward as Mr Weasley had been two years ago and Harry had found the room easily. He dashed to her bed and hugged her tightly, causing her to let out a laugh and then a gasp of pain. "Sorry, are you ok? Where do you hurt?" He pulled back and she winced as she pressed her hand to a point just below her right breast.

"I'm ok Harry its fine, you just hugged a little hard."

"Sorry, I'll get a Healer."

Hermione laughed. "Don't be silly its fine." She looked at him with bewildered bemusement. "Its ok Harry really I'll be ok."

"You feeling alright Harry?" asked Ron. "You're acting like Hermione normally does when _you_ end up in hospital. It's a bit bizarre seeing it the other way round."

"I don't really act like that do I?" Hermione asked looking worried.

"He's doing a fair impression."

"Ron there's no way I'm like that, he's got himself into a right flap, I like to think I have a little more self restraint."

"Yeah, well, you can think what you like can't you, but that doesn't change the fact that you go barking when ever anyone's hurt."

Harry looked from Ron to Hermione and back, realising that if Ron was joking with her then she must be fine. So he turned to Tonks. "You made it sound like she was _dying_!" he said. He felt himself get very annoyed at her, but his relief at knowing that Hermione was ok won over, and his previous worry about her left him feeling quite drained.

"Well…" Tonks said looking a little abashed, "when I first saw her she looked pretty bad. First thing I thought was to get you here quickly."

"They patched me up in no time though," interjected Hermione, "I'm just waiting for someone to find Healer Smethwyck. If I remember rightly he knows the cure for this, I've just got to drink some of this blood replenishing potion ever hour or so." She gestured towards some vials on a tray on a bedside table.

"Has anyone told Ginny? Could you send her a patronus Tonks?"

"Don't worry," said Ron, "I'll go get her… other wise she'll only have kittens too." He stood to leave squeezing Hermione's hand. "And while a little of kittens would be just lovely I'm sure, I think we're a little busy with our lives at the moment." Ron left and Harry took his seat.

"So what happened?" he asked.

"Well, we were looking for –" her eyes flicked to Tonks. "Ah, we were looking… for something, and we ended up in a graveyard." She gave Harry a meaningful look. "Well there was this massive snake there and before I really knew what was going on it bit me, and then Ron killed it."

"A snake?" asked Harry, his green eyes flashed to the bandages. "A snake who's poison stops wounds from healing?"

"The same snake that attacked Arthur?" Tonks asked wide eyed.

Hermione nodded.

"Ron killed her?" Harry asked. "He actually killed her?"

Hermione nodded again. "She latched onto me and wouldn't let go, and then she started to constrict around me… Ron cut her head off."

That meant the there was only one more to get… They only had to find the cup and then throw them all through the veil… And then he could possess Voldemort and kill him. They were one step closer to the end.

"What was she doing there in the graveyard? What were _you_ doing there?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure exactly why she was there," said Hermione. "But I do have my suspicions." She ignored his second question.

"And they are?"

"Well… Do you remember where the house was in which Voldemort killed his parents?"

"Of course I do it's in… It's…" for some reason he could not remember where it was, "Well, that's odd."

"I think it's been put under the fidelius charm… and I think it must be close to the graveyard. So I think that Voldemort is hiding out there, and Nagini was out hunting, and we got lucky."

Harry stood up with excitement. "Very, very lucky." He grinned stupidly and sat back down not caring about the slightly worried expression on Tonks' face.

"You alright Harry?" she asked.

"Yeah I'm fine… What are you doing here anyway… Not that I don't want you to be here, but…"

"Nice to know I'm welcome," she joked, "I was here to pick up Remus' potion, it's a full moon tomorrow." She let out a huge sigh. "I think it might be the last one he'll have for a while now…"

"How come?" Harry asked frowning.

"Well… neither one of us has a job anymore… and Wolfsbane is very expensive." She looked wholly depressed and her hair visibly drooped and dulled.

"Why didn't you say something? I'll get the potions for him, it's –"

"Oh don't be silly Harry, you know he'd never except you paying that much out on him. He'd just say that he's put up with it before and he'll do it again."

Ron and Ginny returned then and Laura followed them in. He did not reply to Tonks but he had already come up with a plan to get Remus his potion. Harry noticed that Ginny did not appear nearly as worried as he had been himself and was carrying herself in a much more dignified manner. She did however let out quite a large breath when she reached Hermione's bed.

"You ok?" she asked, "you look pale."

"I'll be fine thank you."

Laura smiled at Hermione in greeting as she stepped up to the end of the bed and read from a clipboard there while Ron and Ginny sat down, Ginny squeezed Harry's hand tightly. "Hia," greeted Hermione.

"Hi. How long have you been here?" asked Laura.

"I don't know… not long." She looked at Tonks who looked at her wristwatch.

"About half an hour I reckon. You need to take another swig of that potion soon; I was hoping Healer Smethwyck would be here by now."

Laura was still looking at the board and glancing up at Hermione. "I must have just missed you. Do you absolutely need Smethwyck or will any Healer do?"

"Well a couple of years ago Mr – Someone we know was bitten by the same snake and Healer Smethwyck cured him. He made an antidote for the poison." Hermione explained.

"Someone who?"

"My dad," said Ron sadly, "Arthur Weasley."

"You know I feel very faint," Hermione added as an afterthought, Ron went to her quickly and held her hand.

"Why don't you take another potion now, and I'll get on Smethwyck's case, until he gets on yours!" She flashed a grin at Ron and left.

It was not until the early hours of the morning that they were allowed to take Hermione home. Smethwyck had not come to see Hermione, instead he gave Laura Mr Weasley's file and left her too it. They had all thanked her profusely but she had shied it all off and left for home once Hermione was fixed and once Harry had had a little chat with her about a certain potion, and arranged a time and place to exchange a large amount of gold.

They appeared one by one through the fire and sat down around the living room. Ginny was curled up by Harry's side and Ron and Hermione shared an arm chair.

"So what happened?" Harry asked. "What were you doing in the graveyard?"

Hermione shifted on Ron's lap, making herself more comfortable. Harry could remember a day when he thought that it would never happen; he was glad that he had thought wrong.

"Well we went to Little Hangleton to find the Gaunt house, and then-"

"Wait," interrupted Harry, "why were you at the Gaunt's house?"

"Well I wanted see what curses and enchantments Voldemort had put on it, in case we had to face them again when we find the cup."

"You did _what_? Did you forget that Dumbledore lost his whole right _hand_ getting through those spells?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No I didn't forget, and we were very careful, but the spells were gone, Dumbledore had got rid of them all. Anyway, we-" Ron nudged her in the ribs and she flinched, "- ok, _I_ thought that while we were there it might be a good idea to check out the graveyard… It was where he was resurrected after all, and I thought it might be an important place for him… you know, a place he might keep a Horcrux."

Harry was quite impressed if he was honest with himself. "I hadn't thought of that," he confessed ruefully.

"And you know what happened next," continued Ron, "we were there looking around and the snake came out of no where, just sprang out from behind a headstone and latched onto Hermione."

She shuddered. "…It was horrible, it constricted around me and crushed all the breath out of me..."

"So I grabbed it behind the head, right, and severed its head clean off from its body." Hermione looked a little sickened by Ron's enthusiasm.

**A/N : I apologise for the time it took to update… I've had deadlines at university… I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews for the last chapter lol… when I'd written that I hadn't had any on the previous chapter I hadn't expected quite such a large response, so thank you… and thanks for the tip about the hit count… took me ages to find but it's a much better way of telling if the chapter has been well received or not. Till next time… Thank you.**


	23. The Ranks Swell

**The ranks swell**

Harry and Ginny had to wake up early the next day to get to work on time; they ate a quick breakfast, not even close to Harry's normal standards that did little to enliven either of them. An unbelievably tiring and worrying day ensued. Harry reached the offices to be confronted by mayhem; Aurors were running around, robes flapping about their ankles, shouting orders and sending flapping paper aeroplanes in every direction. Harry sighed; it was going to be a long day. Ginny hurried off down a corridor to her own department wishing him luck. When he sat down at his desk he found, on top of his notes from yesterdays concealment training, a letter to him from Dawlish,

_Report to training room one immediately!_

Harry sighed again and made his way to the amphitheatre like training room. He was one of the first students there and sat on his own about half way up and tried not to fall asleep before their trainer had even got here. When everyone else had filed in, and the room was about half filled, Poppet marched in from the back of the room and the chattering of the students faded out to silence.

Poppet put a stack of parchment onto the desk and then faced the room and spoke gravely. "For those of you that don't know… Azkaban was laid to waste last night." He paused for the mutterings, and Harry felt his skin go icy and pulled his robes tighter to him. "I mean completely, the aurors stationed there were killed, and the inmates that did not escape were found dead…

"We received an alert at somewhere between 3 and 4 am this morning, when the guards realised that there was a problem. What Aurors we had were sent to aid the guards, we heard nothing more from them. By the time enough of a force was put together to enter Azkaban there was no one left alive.

"We have files on everyone that escaped that prison but we don't have the man power to go through them… that's where you lot come in. When you return to your desks you will find a folder, in some cases two; your jobs will be to complete an investigation into what they will do next, you are to study their profiles and predict their actions. We need to know each individuals threat level, and what we really need to know, what's at the heart of the matter, is whether they will join You Know Who's ranks and become Death Eaters. We want to know what they're going to do next." He paused and flicked his wand. The parchment stacked of the desk took off and one was delivered to each student. "This is an example of what we want from you… you have until seventeen hundred hours to hand your completed reports to your personal trainer. Dismissed!"

Harry returned to his office reading through the example report, and rubbing his eyes to stay awake. He was not sure what to think when he reached his desk and saw two very familiar faces staring up at him. Draco Malfoy's file sat on top, obscuring his father's folder underneath. He stared at them for a good minute or two standing silently at the entrance to his office. It took him less than two hours to finish the reports. He knew them well enough that their files had little to do with what he wrote.

"You're finished already?" Dawlish asked when Harry sidled into his office.

"I am… I knew both of these people before they were arrested. Actually I fought both of these people before they arrested. I know how they think."

He stood idly, leaning against the office divider while Dawlish sat back in his chair and read through his reports.

"Excellent work," he said morosely after a couple of minutes. Harry waited for something more, another job or a new file, but nothing was forthcoming.

"Can I ask a question?" he asked when he realised that Dawlish seemed to have drifted off into a world of his own. He snapped out of his day dream and turned his eyes upwards to Harry.

"Of course."

"The report on the breakout made it sound as though some of the prisoners had been killed as well as guards."

"Yes that is correct."

"Do you know why some of the prisoners were killed and not others?"

Dawlish paused and scratched the back of his neck. "We have a couple of theories… though I do not think I should be discussing them with you."

Harry tried to put down the irritation he found at those words but he was tired and it did not work, there were always so many secrets here at work, so much distrust, and so many of the aurors and the students looked down upon him and the rest put him on a pedestal he could not reach. He took a calming breath. "Well I've been thinking… Those prisoners that were killed could have been killed by the guards while they were trying to escape… but they could very well have been killed by Voldemort." Harry was very satisfied by the flinch that he induced in Dawlish. "I think that he made the prisoners an offer to come and serve him, and those who refused were killed, which means that every prisoner not dead will have swelled Voldemort's ranks of Death Eaters."

Dawlish sighed and ducked his chin while he rubbed his fingertips across his lined forehead. He always thought a lot before he spoke. "That has been suggested by –"

Robards entered the office and Dawlish broke off to look at him, they gave polite nods in greeting. "Ah Harry good you're already here." He put a report on Dawlish's desk. "There was an attack not an hour ago by the Death Eaters."

"In broad daylight?" asked Dawlish.

"Unless they've figured out a way of getting rid of it, yes, in daylight."

"May I ask why you brought this to me?"

Gawain flashed a glance Harry's way. "It was reported that one of the Death Eaters present was Draco Malfoy, and it was down to Harry to plan his next move." He turned to speak directly to Harry. "I'd say you weren't quite quick enough with your predictions."

"Actually sir," Dawlish cut in, "Harry has already completed and submitted both of his reports and he noted with confidence that both subjects would report directly to You Know Who."

Robards looked like he was fighting the urge to be impressed and Harry felt a swell of pride. "Good work Mr Potter," he said, "but now you have to take it to the next stage."

"Next stage, sir?" Harry asked, covering his confusion with politeness.

"Dawlish is going to take you to the scene of the crime, you are both going to do a survey of the area, find out exactly what happened and then file a report on it."

Harry stared gormlessly at Robards. "But I'm only a first rank recruit…?" Only second ranks were taken on field exercises and there were only three recruits from the last batch who had made it to the second rank.

"Consider this your exam." Robards turned back to Dawlish and rubbed his hands together with a smile. "Get Harry kitted out and ready to go," he said cheerily, "you're to take him through each step and answer any of his questions but he must do the work. You should know that the Minister has just passed us the rights to use any force necessary if we should come across any Death Eaters, if they won't come quietly you may use any of the unforgivables as you see fit."

Three hours later Harry returned to the offices struggling with all his might not to allow his body to remove the contents of his stomach. He had seen bad things before, he had known death, but what he had walked in on was gruesome beyond anything Harry thought possible. He had never believed Draco capable of such things, Harry had known so clearly that Draco could not have killed Dumbledore; he did not have it in him, he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters had appeared on the tower that night, and even when they had arrived he had not been able to do it… Apparently Azkaban had changed him, and Harry hated it. Anger swelled in his chest, making him crave for revenge for what had been done.

Dawlish and Harry sat by a desk and Harry learnt how to write up incident reports. It was horrible work; every sentence reminded him of the carnage at the scene of the crime, the blood spatters, the maimed bodies, and the looks of agony on their faces.

"Do you ever get used to it?" he asked Dawlish.

He sat back in his chair and looked down his legs at his feet. "It never stops effecting you," he said slowly knowing exactly what Harry meant, "but in time… you learn to get used to it… familiarity breeds familiarity. That is especially true nowadays… Not a week goes past without another murder, someone missing, a werewolf attack… We are living in evil times Mr Potter."

"But someone has to fight that evil!" Harry said determinedly, he just had to keep on fighting.

Dawlish sighed. "We'd be out of a job without it… Anyway, you've passed, you're to be taken out of my hands now and put with another Auror, I only take on first rank recruits… You will be in training for the longest amount of time with your next Auror and you will have a lot more one to ones with him… Talk to him about this sort of stuff… I'm off." He stood up, settled his robes and left, leaving Harry very grateful for the fact that he would not be placed under Dawlish for much longer.

The end of that day came as a sweet release and he left his office and headed to see Ginny and take her home, he muddled his way down the corridor searching for 'Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects'.

He entered quietly, Ginny was putting away files and folders on a shelf that was slightly too high for her, on his left. He crept through the office, passing the other people who worked here, who were packing away for the night; their desks were all set at right angles to each other, but there were no divisions like there were in the Auror offices. He could see a door to the far right with Percy's name on it but did not recognise any one else, though he noticed a few of _them_ noticing him, or more importantly his scar.

He rested, perched on a desk with a little folder over piece of metal reading 'Ginevra Weasley' and watched her finishing up. Her back arched as she reached and she flipped her hair over her shoulder to get it out of the way, Harry could not believe that he had known her for so long without ever seeing what he saw now. As she flicked her head she glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye. She spun round quickly, her robes whipping around her ankles, smiling and crossed the step between them to slip into his arms.

"How long have you been here?"

"Just a minute or two."

"I'm glad to see you," she said, "I've been waiting for this day to end since I got here; I'm so glad it's Friday."

"Mmm," agreed Harry taking in a deep breath and smelling the sent of her hair that he loved so much. "You ready to go?"

"Uh huh." She tipped some sheets of parchment off of the edge of the table and into the top draw and took Harry's hand.

"Bye Ginny…" said a man at a desk, he nodded a goodbye, "…Harry."

"Bye," said Ginny. Harry nodded politely.

"Do I know him?" Harry asked out in the hall.

Ginny giggled. "That's Custos Hubard… he's in the Order."

"OH… He works with you? Oh I never knew."

"Dad got on quite well with him before… he's nice enough anyway, a bit of a klutz though."

"He's the secret keeper."

Ron and Hermione slept late that day, missing breakfast all together and going straight onto lunch… Ron made sure it was a large lunch to make up for it. But he would not let Hermione do anything on her own. "Don't worry Hermione I'll get it… You sit there and relax I'll bring it to you…"

"I'm not an invalid!" she would snap at him. But it did not stop him and if she was honest with herself she liked the attention, and her ribs did still ache from the snake bite. She kept the orb Harry had bought for her birthday close, and it relieved the ache and warmed her through.

They spent most of the day on the sofa in front of the fire… talking about anything and everything, and arguing about the rest.

Harry and Ginny returned home a little earlier than they normally did and Ginny sat in Harry's lap in one of the arm chairs, they looked like they were going to fall asleep right there and then. Amazingly Ron did not make any gagging motions to speak of, something that surprised Hermione greatly. She could see them whispering in each others ears and smiling sleepily at what ever the other was saying…

But then it changed, she could see the happiness wash off of Harry's face, as they began talking about things more serious, she guessed. She snuggled a little closer to Ron, she would not worry about Harry or Ginny's conversation, she would try to get some well needed sleep… she was after all recuperating.

"There was a break out from Azkaban this morning," Harry said aloud.

Hermione sat up straight quickly, all thought of sleep forgotten. "What?" she exclaimed.

"Azkaban is gone… everyone escaped or was killed, they've all joined Voldemort."

"Merlins beard!" Ron cried.

Hermione could not believe her ears, some of the worst men and women to walk the earth were now free as birds to kill and butcher. She felt Ron stroke her hair and pull her into an embrace.

"There's something else…" Harry continued.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"The night Snape attacked me in the graveyard… He told me something… I didn't tell you because I thought it was a trap," he said hastily, "and I still think it is… but we've got no more options left."

"Just sodding tell us already," snapped Ron.

"Back off Ron," Ginny lashed back.

Harry's eyes flicked up to Ron's, Hermione could tell, and knew that Ginny could too, that he was worried about what he was about to say. "Snape told me that he and Bellatrix were taking shifts guarding a Horcrux and he gave me an address as to where it is."

Hermione stared at him for a good minute not moving, she was sure that she could hear the cogs turned in Ron's head next to her. "Why didn't you tell us before?" Hermione was very impressed with how calmly she said it.

"I thought it was a trap." He turned and looked over Ginny's head to the fire. "And that if you knew, you would want to go anyway, and I didn't want to get you all caught in it."

She understood him on some level, on another level she was incredibly irritated, most of that was because it was obvious that Ginny already knew about it and she did not… but she understood how he could do something like that. She forgave him very quickly.

"It's ok Harry," she told him. "Just please… don't keep something like this from us again."

Harry nodded. "I am sorry." She saw his eyes dancing about Ron's face… "Ron?" he asked.

Ron shook his head a little in disappointment, she could always tell what he was thinking, even if she rarely agreed with it. "You did to us exactly what you always hated Dumbledore doing to you… and it meant that we were out searching for something that was right under your nose… Hermione got hurt because… you…"

"Ron-" Hermione tried to reason, but he shrugged her off before she could. She huffed and sat up away from him, he just looked at Harry.

"I don't think I ever understood why Dumbledore kept the prophecy from me for so long until now… When he talked to me after Sirius died, he said… he said that he had done just as we fools who love do… He had cared too much. That's what I did too. I cared too much about trying to keep you safe and ended up putting you in more danger. I really am sorry. I should have learnt my lesson from Dumbledore, and I wish so much that he was still here to help us… but he's not… so we have to carry on by ourselves. I understand if you don't want to come… but tomorrow I'm going to go and try to get Hufflepuff's cup."

"Of course we're going to come," said Ron sounding offended, "we're not about to let you take all the glory. Just promise me one thing… don't try and keep us safe again."

**A/N : I've finished my exams and I feel excellent for it, but I'm back writing now and I've already written half of the end and it's not far off being done. Thanks for your reviews; I got a couple saying about how I travel to fast… It's true I do but it's hard to stop… any advice there would be nice. Actually if anyone could point out the bits that whoosh by it'd be helpful, anything from individual sentences to whole plot lines… it'd be nice to see what you would change about the story if you could. Well… thanks again, see you soon.**


	24. The Old Lady

**The Old Lady**

Hermione flicked her hair back out of her face as the wind thrashed it about madly; the map in her hands was barely under her control. The day was grey, the light permeating through the cloudy sky seemed to have no colour, and everything around the four friends was dull and gloomy. They stood on the corner of a t junction not far from the address that Snape had given Harry, Snape had told Harry that Bellatrix's shift guarding the Horcrux was at night and so they were coming during the day… He desperately wanted another chance to fight his most hated professor.

"We go-" Hermione flicked her hair back again, "we go down here and then left and the house will be down that road."

Harry nodded and, taking Ginny's hand, made his way against the blustery weather down the road and around the next corner into another street… which he recognised, he stopped to stare, letting a sudden irony be washed away by embarrassment at not having expected something like this.

"You alright mate?" asked Ron, his cheeks wind blown and red.

"This is the road that Tom Riddles orphanage was on!" Harry shouted to be heard. Ron immediately looked away, his eyes flicked from house to house, building to building, as though that sudden revelation would allow him to instantly know where the Horcrux was hidden.

"It's over there," pointed Harry. Ginny's grip tightened on his hand.

They were quickly on the doorstep of number 64 which had once been the large square orphanage, it was taller now, it had had stories built ontop, and was now a large house. Harry rung the doorbell and Hermione had the end of her wand sticking out of her sleeve. Harry did not like this part of their plan but it was somewhat of a necessary evil; trying to persuade the old lady that Snape had said lived here, that they (four strangers) should be allowed to search her house, was laughable, so they would have to hex her. Hermione would cast a confusing charm on her, and then Ginny would keep her occupied until they could get her into a place where they could slip her a dreamless sleep potion. Harry felt awfully backhanded about it all.

The door opened and a lady older than Harry had been expected opened the door with a pleasant smile. Her eyes glazed a moment later and her smile became rather lopsided. Ginny ferried the lady in talking to her softly, she would reply with a 'yes dear,' or a 'oh that's nice.' Harry brought up the rear and shut the door behind them, ever alert, knowing that Snape would be around here somewhere, and wondering whether he would make himself known and try to stop them himself, or go straight to Voldemort in which case Harry was sure they would be shortly deluged in Death Eaters. He hated the thought that he was leading his friends into a trap _again_.

"Here why don't you have a cup of tea?" He heard Ginny say from the next room. Harry made his way to the door where Ron and Hermione waited for the old lady to drink the potion and fall asleep. Ginny had sat her down on a couch and was sitting opposite her over an old coffee table. Everything in the house looked old, the décor was incredibly outdated, and the furniture was all antique, however none of it looked as though it had been forgotten about, actually it all looked meticulously well looked after.

"Oh no dear, thank you," said the lady distractedly, "I'm not particularly thirsty."

"Oh," said Ginny, "Er, well, I know I'll leave it here and if you change your mind you don't hesitate to take a sip."

_What were they going to do now_? Thought Harry, they could not just leave the lady here while they went searching around the house. Ginny looked up and caught his eye and twitched her head to the side, indicated him to leave while she kept the old lady company. He scrunched up his face with his displeasure at leaving her alone. She narrowed her eyes, and moved her head again. Hermione and Ron's eyes were flicking from one face to another.

Finally Harry gave in and against his better judgment, and grinding his teeth he left Ginny and set off quickly to the first place he wanted to search. He found the stairs quickly and set of up two flights, closely followed by Ron and Hermione. He came to a halt on a landing, in front of a door that was completely out of place in this house. The other doors had all been white, with an indented pattern, and they all looked pristine; this one looked old, and wasted, a mouldy rotten brown.

"Muggle repelling charm you think?" asked Ron.

"I don't know," replied Hermione, "but it's a good guess. Hold on." She waved her wand in front of the door and after a moment of silence, seeing nothing happen, checked over her shoulder and then opened the door. "Let's go," she whispered.

They entered into the room that Lord Voldemort had grown up in and it had not changed since he had been here. The antique bed, a chair… and the wardrobe.

"I think it will be in the wardrobe," said Harry.

"How come?" asked Ron.

Harry sat down on the chair that Dumbledore had once sat on and talked to Tom Riddle from. "When Dumbledore was giving me lessons and showing me Voldemort's past, we came here, to the orphanage, and we came to this room. This was where Voldemort grew up, in this very room. Anyway, when Dumbledore came here to tell him about Hogwarts, Riddle didn't believe him, so Dumbledore set the wardrobe on fire, or at least made it look like it was on fire. That was the first bit of magic he had ever seen. So I think he would have hidden the Horcrux in there, I think he would have seen it fitting."

Hermione was already examining the wardrobe, not touching it but glancing every way she could at it, and waving her wand in ever increasingly complex patterns. If he was honest with himself, Harry had no idea what she was doing. Eventually Hermione pulled back. "I don't think there's any magic actually _on_ the wardrobe," she said over her shoulder, "but it's strange, it's almost as if… like there's magic _inside_ the wardrobe."

"Let's open it and see then," said Ron impatiently. He strode across the step between where he'd been standing and Hermione, and reached out to yank open the door.

BANG

"_Expelliarmus._" The door to the small room had slammed open behind them and when Harry spun around he saw the little old lady who lived here standing in the doorway with a wand pointed straight at him.

"Where's Ginny?" Was the only thing his mouth could come up with.

"Oh don't worry Potter; your little Weaslette won't be here to enjoy your suffering."

"Who are you?" His eyes narrowed. "What have you done to her?"

The woman cackled unnaturally, "You still haven't guessed little Harry?" she said mockingly. "But then I suppose you never where known for your intelligence –"

"If you've hurt her I swear –"

She ignored him. "Which is why your wand is in my hand and you have no chance for escape." She cackled again.

"Lestrange I assume?" said Hermione taking a step up towards Harry. "There was no old lady, correct? Just you pretending."

"Shut up mudblood. There's a lady rotting away down stairs, I need to keep her hair fresh for as long as the Dark Lord needs me to guard his most valuable treasure, but right now," she took in a shuddering breath ecstatically, "now I take you all to him, and receive my just rewards."

"Where's Ginny?" Harry repeated.

Bellatrix scowled at him, her old wrinkled eyes did not suit the look, it scared him, he knew just what this woman was capable of, and he knew perfectly well that she was not only capable, but revelled in murder. His heart was beating rapidly against his chest, he could not bear to think that something had happened to Ginny, she was his life now, she meant the world to him, it was the love he held in his heart for her that let him take control of Voldemort's mind, that power that he knew not, that love that made him feel like he had never felt before. Without her a part of him would die inside, and with the death of that part of him he could not beat Voldemort, and he and this woman in front of him would continue their reign of terror and kill more loved ones. He could not let that happen, he feared and yet could not stop himself from straining with everything he had to hear the answer she was about to give, his whole world rested on what she said, if Ginny was ok he did not care what Bellatrix would do to him, but he did not know what he would do if she was not. The crinkled face of the old lady broke into a wicked half smirk and Harry's world plummeted. "She's staining the carpets red!"

The words wrung in Harry's ears for only a second before he was lunging forward. He barely recognised the sound of his own voice yelling, he hardly noticed that he did not have his wand, he was seeing everything with a red hue to it, he was fully prepared to strangle the life out of this woman in front of him with his bare hands, he had done it already in his mind, he was committed to it, every muscle in his body strained for revenge, he was inches away, his fingers stretched out for this murderers life… he stopped. He tried to complete the attack forward but he could not, his body was frozen in the air, he could not move. He wanted to scream and shout and rile, do anything to stop the cold laughter that was changing slowly from a wheezy cackle to a full throated roaring in his ears and the little old lady bulged and warped and grew. Her short white curly hair lengthened and her face became more pointed and gaunt. Her crinkled skin tautened and her eyes became cold as agates. Harry watched, unable to look away as the emaciated and empty face of a woman he had come to loath appeared before him. She sidled up close to him, and whispered with cruel excitement in his ear. "Don't worry baby Potter, I'm sure it didn't hurt much. Her screams didn't last long." He felt a tear slide down his cheek. "But there's no one to save you now baby Potter… we have lots and lots of time together now, and my Lord will not care in what state you arrive at his feet." Her wand was roving across his body. "I think I'll start here." She stopped her wand directly over his heart. "I think that'll hurt most… don't you?"

There was a movement over Bellatrix's shoulder out through the doorway, and his captor was suddenly pitched forward out of his sight, where he heard her hit the floor hard.

"Over my dead body!" growled Ginny from the hall way. Her messy hair at the side of her head was matted together with blood making her look like a cat who had been in a scrap, and there was a trickle of red at the corner of her soft lips, but she was alive… she was alive and standing before him, his heart exploded and he felt himself released from his magical bonds. He dashed forwards and caught Ginny up in a fierce embrace which she returned.

"I thought she'd killed you," he almost whimpered.

"Nah, she just hit me in the head with something and left me on the floor unconscious. It bloody hurts, but I'll be fine."

Harry spun back round. "Hermione can you – Hermione?"

She had not moved; she and Ron were still standing in exactly the same places they had been before Bellatrix had shown herself; he picked his wand up off the floor. "_Finite_," he said. They both seemed to relax. Hermione instantly leapt forward and ran her wand over the cut on Ginny's head to stop the bleeding and then siphoned off the blood.

"Thanks," she said. "What now?"

The other three looked at each other all seeming to ask the other what to do.

"We could tie her up and leave her here," suggested Ron.

"Don't be silly, she's bound to escape and then she'll run off to Voldemort," snapped Hermione, "but I think Snape must have tricked you Harry, he probably told you that he did the day shift because he knew that you would go after him and not Bellatrix, and because he wasn't here, he now looks guilt free." She screwed up her mouth in thought. "We should take her to the Ministry."

"We could give her to Neville," Ron countered.

"_What_?"

"Well if anyone's got a right to decide what's done with her it's Neville don't you think?"

They stared at the woman on the floor for a second. "No," said Harry, "no, I don't think he would want that…" he did not want to do that to Neville, if Voldemort was delivered to_ his_ doorstep he knew exactly what he would do… he would kill him, there and then without any hesitation… he did not want Neville to be faced with that choice. "We take her to the Order… she said the old woman was here still. Ron and me will take Lestrange to Remus; can you two try and find the old lady while we're gone and take her to St. Mungos? Yeah? Good. We'll meet back in this room in an hour… if we're not back…"

"We can use these," said Ginny reaching into her pocket and pulling out two small mirrors. One was the mirror that Harry had smashed after Sirius had died, but it was fixed now. He shot a glance towards Ginny who shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Lupin mentioned them a while back so I nicked your broken one and fixed it. You take one and I'll take the other. If for any reason we're not back in an hour, call us."

Harry accepted the mirror gingerly, his mouth would not quite close… how many times had he wished that he had used these before while he had a chance… he felt so much regret that he had not. But now he had a second chance and he would not make the same mistake twice. He nodded and then bound and gagged Bellatrix. The girls set off on their search and Harry took the ends of his magical restraints. Ron disillusioned her and they apparated near by Grimmauld place. Ron knocked on the door and Harry kept a look out behind him. It opened a minute later.

"Hello boys," said a gruff voice. Harry turned to see Mad-Eye Moody standing in the door way leaning on a staff and whizzing his magical eye around in his head. "Why don't you come in then?"

"Actually can't stay," said Ron nonchalantly, "just thought we'd drop someone off."

Moody scowled, as Harry grabbed Lestrange's limp form under one arm and dragged her across the threshold. He tapped his wand on her head and she reappeared as though colour was being poured back onto her body. Harry stepped back and saw Moody's shocked face.

"Well got to go," said Ron with a flick of his hand, "stuff to do."

"Wait – but how did you –"

They apparated away with grins on their faces.

"I enjoyed that," said Ron when they appeared back in the dingy room. "Let's go get us a Horcrux."

They waited in the little room for half an hour before Ginny and Hermione arrived.

"Everything ok?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," said Hermione, "she was such a sweet lady, the healers are taking care of her now."

"Good… You still think we can just open this thing?"

Hermione drew her lip through her teeth. "Theoretically, since there is no magic on the wardrobe itself it stands to reason that anything done _to_ the wardrobe would have no effects."

"Well that's good enough for me," Harry heard Ron say behind him and before he had fully turned around Ron opened the single door of the narrow wardrobe.

**A/N : It's been a while. This writing malarkey is harder than I thought it would be. Still the next chapter was part of this one but had to be cut off because it was going up to about seven thousand words and most of my chapters are only about three thousand, should be up in a couple of days. I hope I haven't disappointed any one too much with the long wait. But here's another slice of the pie. Thanks.  
**

**Actaully this all would have been up two weeks ago except my internet was down and then when it came back up I couldn't upload anything for some reason... I'll post the next chapter later today. Cheers.**


	25. Statues, Snakes, and Spells

**Statues, Snakes, and Spells**

Inside, was dark, at least that was what Harry thought at first, as he got closer though he realised that rather than just being dark, it reminded him of Fred and George Weasley's Instant Peruvian Darkness Powder. "Er…" said Ron, "what now?" He experimentally stuck his hand out into the black void.

"Ron _No_!" Shrieked Hermione rushing forwards and banging past Harry. Ron spun quickly pulling his hand back out and Hermione grabbed it and began examining it.

"It's fine… really Hermione."

"What on earth were you thinking! You could have lost your arm… Look what happened to Professor Dumbledore's, and _he _knew what he was _doing_." She threw his hand down and glared at him; he fell backwards and sat on the bed. Hermione took out her wand and started to cast spell after spell into the black hole, but nothing seemed to happen. Ginny came up, from the doorway, to stand next to him.

"How's your head?" he asked tenderly.

"Oh its fine… one of the healers took a look and fixed it up."

"Good," he said kissing her temple.

Hermione stood back with her hands on her hips for a minute, and then cast a lumos charm at it; the light seemed to stop when it got to the darkness so that a circle of light seemed to hang in the air in front of it. Hermione then plunged her hand, with her wand, forward. As it passed over the edge, the light was swallowed up like a candle blowing out. She pulled her hand back, and the light seemed to turn back on.

What they really needed was a light that could not be put out by what ever spell was in place. And then Harry had a sudden stroke of inspiration as a memory of being encased within a river of Aduron fairies at Bill and Fluer's wedding flooded through his brain, they gave off light where ever they were, the darker it got the more light they gave.

"I've got an idea," he said, "but I need to go and get something for it to work. I'll be back in a bit."

Harry spun on the spot, ignoring the protesting voices of the others and popped out of the apparition into the clearing that was used for the Weasley wedding, he got his wand out to point him in the right direction, the air was quiet here, not like windy London. After walking for close to twenty minutes he was starting to wonder whether his wand was going wonky, but he pressed on regardless. Another few minutes and he was once again greeted with the sight of thousands of pink, faintly glowing fairies. He strode closer to them, so that he could just about make out individuals from the group, selected one, and thought, "_Accio_." The fairy zoomed out of the flock and he caught it deftly, like a peculiarly shaped snitch.

He felt a brief surge of satisfaction before pain struck him viciously in his finger… The little thing had bit him. "OW."

He heard an angry buzzing and looked up to see hundreds more of the fairies heading his way very, very quickly. He took a step back, unsure of what to do. The hesitation was a mistake. The other fairies, having seen him take one of their own, were dive bombing him; aiming for his eyes with their tiny but incredibly sharp claws. He swiped them away as best he could, frantically trying to protect his face, and trying to muster the concentration needed to disapparate. He felt tiny claws raking his head and neck, and little teeth sinking into his ankles. He concentrated hard on apparating, and disappeared.

Letting out a sigh, that was abruptly cut off when the little fairy in his hand bit him again; he had brought himself into the hallway outside of the room. When he burst through the door he shook his hand to try and dislodge the unhappy fairy, which was still mauling his hand, and half flicked half threw it into the open wardrobe. Considering how much the bites on his hand and ankle hurt, and how much the scratches across his forehead stung, he felt surprisingly good.

"Harry - ?" asked Hermione, who was standing next to the wardrobe, giving him and his hand a funny look. Ron too was staring at him slightly strangely, the look seemed quite funny to Harry.

"You feeling alright?" Ron asked him.

"Actually now you mention it I do feel quite good." Harry grinned stupidly. "I have no idea why." He turned to look at Ginny to see whether she could tell him why he was so happy and when she saw his face her eyes widened and she bit her lip, but it looked to Harry more like she was trying to stop from laughing than from worry.

"What's wrong with you all?" he asked felling rather out of the loop, but pleasantly so.

"Harry you're glowing," Hermione told him, she whipped out her wand and jabbed it towards his forehead a few times.

"My scar?" he asked.

"No the cuts, and the bites on your hand too."

He looked down; the bite marks on his fingers and hand were letting out a vivid pink glow, and the light was pushing out of his hand, so that it looked as though he were holding it up to a particularly strong light. He reached down and lifted the bottom of his jeans; his ankles too, were glowing.

"Isn't that peculiar," he said nonplussed as Hermione began to seal the wounds. "Oh, well, ooh, look, the fairies lighting up the cupboard."

They all shoved closer to peer inside, at what was quite obviously not a wardrobe at all. There was about a twenty foot drop and a ceiling just above their heads, it looked like a passage way, tall and narrow, that stretched far off into the distance. The little fairy was gazing about in bewilderment; it obviously had no idea where it was.

"Well then," said Harry conjuring a particularly stout rope from the end of his wand. "Who's first?" He grinned at his very humourless question. His friends shared another worried look.

"Er… why don't we tie the rope to the bed first?" suggested Hermione.

"Excellent idea." Harry and Ron rearranged the bed so that it was perpendicular to the front of the wardrobe and right up close, so that it could not accidentally be pulled through the door after them, and then attached the rope to the most solid part they could find. They shimmied down one by one.

"Bit dingy down here isn't it," remarked Ginny.

"Nonsense," replied Harry, "this is positively gleaming compared to Voldemort's usual standards." He started walking down the passage way light heartedly.

"Maybe the fairy's bites were poisonous?" Ron suggested quietly behind him.

"If they were, all that was _in_ the poison was a strong cheering charm," replied Hermione. Harry laughed loudly at her. "…Hopefully."

Harry turned to gesture the others to follow. Hermione shrugged and conjured a cage around the slowly spinning, awed fairy, which suddenly became angry and flapped its wings loudly in protest. Hermione summoned the cage to her and carried it down the tunnel with them.

They had been walking for only about five minutes, past chiselled statues and ornate decoration on the walls, the flagstone floor looked dry and clean, no trace of dust what so ever, when quite suddenly, out of the darkness, a wall loomed up to bar their progress.

"Well that's rotten luck," stated Harry tutting.

Hermione, ignoring Harry, began to inspect the wall, waving her wand backwards and forwards over it. Harry stopped paying attention after a couple of seconds and let his mind wander, humming a pleasant tune to himself quietly. It was really, a very nice place considering Voldemort's usual standards. The carved statues on the walls were gruesome and contorted, but excellently crafted, and the whole corridor seemed remarkably clean. He glanced back at Hermione who was now running her hands over the wall in a way very reminiscent of Dumbledore when they had been in the cave. She stopped and looked to her left hand, which seemed to have felt something at about head height on the wall. She peered closer to her hand, and Harry was egging her on to himself, hoping the she had found a way through the wall.

"What's this?" she asked.

Ginny picked up the little cage with the bright fairy in it, and held it close to the wall, there was a narrow slit, three or four inches long, it was horizontal in the middle of the wall, as though it were asking for payment to pass. Considering his chances and realising that Hermione had not healed up his ankle yet, he reached down and wiped some of the blood onto his finger. He wiped the blood into the slit hoping that Voldemort once again was trying to weaken anyone coming in. Nothing happened.

"Worth a try," he said.

Ron raised an eye brow at him.

"What? It worked in the cave – MERLIN what's that?" Harry lifted his arm and pointed over Ron's shoulder where he could see some of the chiselled statues beginning to break away from the walls. As soon as their feet had broken away from the stone their rough hewn bodies began to shuffle towards them slowly, making a tap-tap where stone met stone. There must have been at least twenty of them that Harry could see, and quite suddenly he did not feel that cheerful anymore, on the contrary his heart had suddenly begun to beat rapidly and he could feel it pumping fear to the ends of his fingers and toes. He stepped protectively in front of Ginny. The lifeless bodies moving slowly towards them reminded him horribly of inferi, their faces, set in stone, did not move, but were all contorted in pain, anger and terror.

Ron fired of a red beam of light from beside him but the spell bounced back like the spells had off of the statue of Godric Gryffindor, which was still buried in their back garden, and Harry had to cast a shield charm to stop it from stunning _him_.

He heard Ginny cast a reductor curse from beneath his arm and saw a whole leg blasted off one of the monsters, which were now within spitting distance of them. The legless soldier toppled to the side, and it shattered into a hundred pieces as it struck the floor. Harry shot as many reductor curses as he could, there were lots and lots of soldiers. One managed to get to them, it grabbed Ron while he was destroying a particularly ugly figurine attempting to do in Harry, and Ron let out a cry as it squeezed his left arm. Ginny turned it to rubble.

The only saving grace was the width of the hall, which only allowed a few statues to attack at a time.

In a remarkably short amount of time, all that was left was dust.

Harry, panting, checked everyone was ok and then collapsed back against a wall to get his breath.

"Just what did you do?" asked Hermione.

"I just dropped a little blood into the slot," he panted, "that's what we had to do in the cave… Dumbledore had to give some blood before we could pass. I thought this might be the same… but… come to think of it... I think a sword is what is meant to fit into the slot. Gryffindor's sword."

"…Gryffindor's sword." Hermione looked thoughtful, a frown of concentration furrowing her forehead. "Of course... The key to this Horcrux is the sword… what if the key to the locket was the cup? What if drinking the potion from the cup rendered it harmless? And what if wearing the locket whilst casting spells at the statue of Gryffindor meant that magic was not reflected from it?" Her eyes were wide with the joy of having solved a puzzle. "Something like that anyway… Each Horcrux allowing the next one to be reached… A failsafe for Voldemort, in case he ever needed to move them."

Hermione lunged out to Ginny and grabbed her arm. "Come on let's go get the statues sword." Hermione turned but nothing happened. "Damn, anti-apparition wards… never mind." She pulled Ginny back along the corridor to where their escape rope was waiting. "You boys wait here and guard the wall, and don't do anything stupid, Harry."

They grumbled a bit about being left behind for a minute, and then fell into an easy silence while they waited.

"You know…" said Ron, "I really need the loo."

Harry stared at him with a raised eye brow for a second, and then snorted. Ron caught his eye and they both burst out laughing.

Hermione and Ginny came hurrying down the corridor ten minutes later to find them still sniggering to themselves.

Hermione looked from one stupid grin to the other and then at the bright fairy. "You didn't let that thing bite you too did you?" She asked Ron.

He caught Harry's eye again and they both laughed. Tutting, Hermione strode straight past them and plunged the large sword into the slot. She nearly over balanced. The wall vanished like fog being burnt out by the sun, leaving Hermione trying to hold the weight of a sword at head height, horizontally. She let the tip drop to the floor heavily. Beyond her was the rest of the narrow corridor. While this side was covered in dust, it was clean and dry, on the other side of this wall was grime and slime, and the walls were dripping with moisture that had collected into small puddles.

"Well it's a bit bigger than the _actual_ sword of Gryffindor, but it seems to have worked. Here," she said holding it out to Ron, "you can carry this."

Harry's heart sank when they began to move down into the newly opened area… Not twenty paces away stood another wall. This one was not bare like the last one; it had markings and symbols all across it. They all looked like geometric shapes about the size of Harry's palm, drawn with writing, so that where lines should have been there were only words in peculiar languages. Harry could not make head or tail of it all.

Hermione however immediately began inspecting, attempting to decipher the scripts and work out the way through this wall. She conjured parchment and quill and scribbled away furiously. Harry sat down and let Hermione work her magic. Half an hour they waited until Hermione let out a frustrated growl and threw down her parchment.

"This makes no sense at _all_!" she cried glaring at the wall.

Ron pushed himself to his feet. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I've told you… It makes no _sense_!"

Ron rolled his eyes behind her. "Why doesn't it make any sense?"

"All of these words are written in Runes. So I translated some of them, and the words I've translated, are all in a different _language_, so I translated them into English, but they are _completely_ unrelated. It's all gobbledegook!"

"You speak gobbledegook?"

Hermione tutted and turned her back on the wall. "Of course not, it's a figure of speech."

Ginny tilted her head from Harry's shoulder and looked up at him. "Come on," she said sighing, "let's see if we can help."

She got to her feet and helped Harry up after her. They both stepped around Hermione and Ron and stood in front of the wall trying to get some sort of meaning from it, but Harry could not seem to see anything familiar about any part of the puzzle at all.

"Hmm," said Ginny. Harry's eyes left the wall and travelled to her face, her mouth was screwed to the side in thought and one hand rested on her hip. "They all look like arrows don't you think?" she said.

Harry's eyes darted back to the wall of shapes. Now that she had mentioned it he realised that all of the shapes did indeed seem to have some sort of direction to them. He let his hand trace out shapes and directions in front of him. A kite shape in front of him pointed down to the right, his fingers glided down following the direction of the kite until they hovered over a triangle where the line of words on one edge was curved. He followed the point of the other two lines and came to a set of words that formed an arrow.

"Hermione?" he called.

"What is it?" she snapped, breaking off her argument with Ron.

"Does one of these shapes say 'start' anywhere?"

"What?"

"'Start' or 'begin' or 'first' or something like that? Do any of the words mean start?"

Hermione knelt down next to her discarded notes and ruffled through them.

"Yes…" she said slowly. "This one here." She crouched between Harry and Ginny and touched a triangle in the centre of the wall near ground level. Her hand shot away from it immediately. She shuffled back quickly. It had lit up with a vivid green light, illuminating the words. Harry shared a look with Ginny and allowed himself a small smile. They looked directly upwards from the triangle to a semicircle that was brought to a point, facing up and to the left. Harry reached out and touched it. A line drew itself in glowing light from the triangle at the base up to the next symbol, and when the line connected with the small shape, it too lit up. Grinning, Harry and Ginny began to follow lines and connect shapes, the interconnecting and crossing lines lighting up the wall like a peculiar Christmas tree. The eerie green glow, mixed with the Aduron fairy's pink light, cast strange shadows and looked particularly sinister. They had to employ Ron to reach some of the higher ones, and the very top shape, a pointed octagon, was so high that Ron had to lift Ginny on his shoulders for them to reach it.

Then disaster struck. A line ran from an arrow to a triangle, and met the triangle at one of its points; the triangle was symmetrical, and so presented two equal points which both lead to other shapes. There was no way of knowing which one of the points should they follow.

"Let's follow the routes without touching them first," suggested Hermione, "and then we can see where the routes lead."

Nodding, Harry and Ginny traced out the left route while Ron and Hermione traced out the right, the two routes each formed a semicircle so that they both came around and met at another triangle far below the troublesome one, the lines would both enter the triangle at the bottom two points, and the remaining point would send the next line upwards towards a circle.

"Do you reckon that circle's the last one?" asked Ron.

Hermione concentrated on the writing around it for a minute or two. "It could well be Ron. It say's finite."

"Do we just press it now? Or do we connect it to the light first?"

"I think we should follow these paths between the remaining shapes first so that the light connects to the circle."

Ron nodded sagely. "But which route do we take?"

"I shouldn't think it matters," said Ginny, "they both end up in the same place."

"Go for it then," said Ron and Ginny reached out and touched the next shape, after the forked triangle, on the left route. Rather than light up the shape Ginny had touched, the troublesome triangle dimmed, and went off. The line connecting it to the previous shape evaporated and there was a grinding sound from the ceiling.

They craned their necks up and turned around, to see long sinuous shapes dropping down in front of them. Hundreds of snakes had been dropped from the ceiling near enough for Harry to reach out and kick, small ones barely as long as Harry's foot, and huge ones that could eat him whole. And none of them looked happy to see them. Ron raised the sword to fend them off. A huge hissing filled the corridor and Harry was suddenly confused, as though dropped into a large crowded room full of angry conversation.

"_Stop_!" he shouted in a hiss covering his ears. "_Silence_."

Amazingly the angry hissing stopped and the snakes all seemed to uncoil and relax, they were left with a horrible slithering as thousands of scales rubbed against each other.

"_I sssmell fear._" Harry heard as one slithered past him, the snake rose up and jabbed towards Ginny who was off to the side of Harry and pressed up against the illuminated wall with her eyes scrunched shut and her head turned away.

"_Leave her alone!_" hissed Harry. "_Leave her!_" the four foot snake recoiled from Harry and he thought he saw an almost imperceptible but unmistakable bow from the snake before it moved off to be lost among its fellows.

Harry turned and embraced Ginny, turning his back to the snakes. "Relax," he said touching his forehead to hers, "they can smell your fear. You need to relax; I won't let anything happen to you."

"That's easier said than done," she whispered shrilly. "I hate snakes."

"It's ok." He kissed her lips and felt some of the tension leave her.

"_What is your businessss?_" Harry heard from behind him. Turning his head he saw a large snake looking him in the eye. He turned around and stood in front of Ginny, holding her hand behind his back.

"_We are trying to get through this wall._" Harry told him.

"_Why?_" Asked the diamond patterned python.

"_We need to find what is on the other side… Do you know how to get past this wall?_"

"_I do._"

"_How? Please tell us how._"

The huge snake rocked its head over, as though it were peering at the glowing symbols. "_Where there are two pathsss one mussst follow each, for if there are two pathsss forward, there are two pathsss back_." The massive snake swivelled its head back in front of Harry's, "_Before you go on pleassse, we wisssh to go back to our home._"

"_Up there?_" Harry asked pointing upwards to where he could see a huge stone trap door that had swung open.

The python nodded slowly. Harry turned to his friends. "The snake said something about two people going on paths or something… I think he means that we have to press the symbols on both routes at the same time, but to be honest I don't really understand what he meant. Anyway they want to go back up there," he pointed to the ceiling. "Apparently it's their home. I reckon if three of us levitate up the snakes then one person can shut the trapdoor."

It went off without a hitch and Harry only felt Ginny completely relax when the trap door was securely locked with as many spells as Hermione could come up with.

Ginny let out a shudder. "Thank Merlin you're a parcelmouth."

"Thank Voldemort more like," said Harry. "Right, so, I'll push on these symbols and Hermione you push on those symbols, we push each one on three and then move onto the next ok?"

"Alright," agreed Hermione, pushing on the triangle which had gone out when the snakes had fallen. It lit back up.

"Ok then," said Harry. "One, two, three." They both pushed on the next shapes in the chain as Harry said three and they both turned on and connected to the triangle with green light. They worked their way round to the lower triangle and both pushed on that at the same time too. It lit up and pointed to the circle. Taking a breath Harry said, "one, two, three."

They touched the circle but did not see if it lit up because they were sucked through it in an instant and landed on the cold stone floor on the other side. Harry stood quickly and helped Hermione to her feet. Ron and Ginny were not with them.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes, yeah I'm fine. You?" She brushed her hands on her clothes.

"I'm fine… The Horcrux is here, I can feel it."

They did not need a fairy to see in the room that they found themselves in. A white glow was illuminating the circular area from a pedestal in the middle of the floor. On top of it stood the cup that Harry had seen in Dumbledore's pensieve.

Harry reached into his pocket before he looked for the cup and pulled out the two way mirror.

"Ginny," he said clearly.

The mirror turned black and then shapes swirled as the mirror was pulled from Ginny's pocket. Harry saw the floor then a bit of Ron's legs and then Ginny's face, as she brought her mirror up to look into.

"Harry? Are you ok?"

"We're both fine. We're in the room with the Horcrux. I don't want you and Ron to try and come through after us. The snake said something about there being two paths here and two paths back. Me and Hermione have come through, so it stands to reason we can get back, but I don't know what will happen if more than two people come through. Wait there and we'll come back ok?"

Ginny looked like she wanted to argue, but nodded. "But you make sure the mirror stays on the whole time so we know if you're in trouble ok!"

"Ok," he agreed.

He propped the mirror up against the wall they had come through. This side seemed similar to the other side, there were the same shapes on it, in the same order as far as Harry could tell. That was good, he thought. They could get back out ok.

He turned his attention back to the cup. Hermione was already walking around it leaving a fair space between her and the cup. He noticed that she was keeping her distance because there was a different type of stone making up the floor that the pedestal was stood on. It was darker, more sinister, than the light stone that made the walls and outer ring of floor.

"What do you think happens if we step on that?" he asked Hermione.

"I don't know, but I don't think I'd like to find out either." She stopped pacing and folded her arms. "I'm sorry Harry but I just don't know the answer to this puzzle."

He nodded slowly and let out a breath. He gazed purposefully around the room for any clue, but it was bare and barren and silent.

"Ok then," he said. "Hermione, go and stand by that wall." He pointed to the one that they had come through to get here. "Be ready to defend yourself from anything."

"Just what are you going to do?" she asked fearfully as she moved to where he wanted her. Namely behind him, so that hopefully his body would shield her from what ever was coming.

"I'm going to summon the Horcrux. It should… hopefully… let us know what is guarding it. Just be ready."

"Ok."

Harry faced Hufflepuff's cup and took a deep breath. His muscles were tight with anticipation. He held his wand out and summoned the cup. The cup rattled slightly but that was all he noticed before spells shot at him from all directions and his world went black.

**A/N : This one chapter just keeps getting longer lol. This was all meant to be part of the last chapter… and I still haven't finished. **

**I thought that this might be a good place to cut this chapter; the next one should go through getting this Horcrux and destroying them all. I've already written the end of that chapter and I'm on my Easter holiday with almost no uni work, so it should be soon in coming. Thanks.**


	26. Gotchya

**Gotchya**

Harry awoke without any knowledge of where he was, his head swam and someone must have taken off his glasses because he could not see. "Harry?" someone called from far away. "… Harry?"

Something hit him hard around the face, and things began to snap back into focus. He saw Hermione's face, crouched down above him, and beyond her, the murky stone walls, he tried to lift his head but his body felt weak, like he had not eaten for days and his head clunked heavily back against the hard floor. "Snap out of it Harry." Hermione swore loudly.

"You…Y-you spend too much time around Ron," his shivery voice croaked out.

"Harry? Harry how are you feeling? Are you ok?"

"C-Cold," he panted. Hermione helped him sit up, where he began to shiver uncontrollably.

"It's ok Harry. You'll be ok. Don't worry." Hermione knelt behind him and leant him against her. "Here," she said pointing her wand at him, "I'll warm you up."

"N-No!" He tried to shake his head. "No, it m-might set of the spells again."

"No it won't, I've already woken you up with magic... and a slap. The defences must only react if something within that dark circle of stones in the middle of the room is affected." Hermione warmed him with hot air but his shivering continued.

"Th-Thank you, I feel much better," Harry told her.

"You're still shivering."

"M-Must be an after effect of the sp-spells. But I f-_feel_ much better."

Hermione pushed a hand against his forehead, and waved her wand over him but the more she tried to work out what was wrong, and the more she failed, the more anxious she got.

"I'm sorry Harry, I-I don't know what to do." She seemed close to tears.

"W-We get the Horcrux first… then-then we c-can worry about me." Harry tried to get to his feet. His glasses were on, but his vision was still blurry. He was warm but his shivering continued. He felt so weak; Hermione sagged under his weight as she helped him up.

"Sp-spells, ar-are the problem right?" Harry shook out. "S-So I'll walk to the cup casting shield charms, and if t-the shield is b-broken, you can levitate out my body. R-right?"

"Harry that's madness," he heard Ginny's voice from the mirror that was still propped up against the wall.

"And it probably wont work," said Hermione. "When you tried to use magic on the cup the spells shot at you. If I try to use magic on you I should think that spells will shoot at _me_."

"Then w-what do we d-do?"

Hermione chewed her lip. "Harry… What ever we do is going to be dangerous. But what if we walked there back to back? By shielding ourselves we shield each other. Once we get the cup away… well hopefully the spells will stop."

"Hermione," Ron said through the mirror, "that's even more stupid than what Harry said… this way you'll both be screwed."

Hermione did not look round. "It's our best bet, what do you think Harry?"

"L-Let's t-try it." Hermione stepped around Harry and pushed her back up to his. Harry walked forward with his wand up and ready. As he stepped with his right foot, Hermione stepped backwards with her left, so they matched.

"R-Ready?" Harry asked.

"When you are."

Harry took a step forward onto the dark circle of stones around the pedestal Spells shot at them and they both cried, "_Protego_."

"Don't stop," cautioned Hermione, "keep walking."

Harry stepped twice more, each time having to block more spells, before he felt a thud from behind him. He heard Ron shout Hermione's name, and saw her body hit the ground out of the corner of his eye. He made a snatch and grabbed the cup, he spun on the spot and cast the most powerful shield he could manage, there was a deluge of spells and he held them off, but he was weak, and as he took his next step the next lot of spells to crash down on his shield shattered it like a pane of glass and he slumped down over Hermione so that their bodies formed an X on the floor.

Nothing made sense… He was staring at something, but he had no idea what it was… He could hear a repetitious sound, but he could not make it out… His eyes were open, but they did not want to blink. Nothing made sense. He moved his head ever so slightly, his world shifted, but no meaning came from what he was seeing. He lay like that, dazed and confused, not knowing where he was, what day of the week it was, or even his name, for a long time. How long he did not know, but it came about that he realised he was looking into the open eyes of a girl equally as stunned as he was. The eyes blinked slowly.

"Harry…" he heard, the repetitious sound he could here began to take on some meaning, but it sounded as though it was coming from the other side of a wall, or from behind a pillow. It was muffled to the point were it was hardly recognisable. Was he Harry? It seemed right. Why not? He could be Harry.

"…Can't get through…"

The murmurs were becoming louder… It felt as though he was underwater, swimming to the surface, but the harder he kicked, the higher the surface seemed to be, and the farther away air was from his lungs.

"…Harry…"

He liked the sound of the voice talking to him; he wanted to hear it more.

"…Wake up…"

He concentrated on it, it seemed like he should know who it was… like the knowledge was there, in his brain, but that he could not reach it, and it was frustrating. The harder he clawed his way towards the knowledge that he knew he had, the less sure he was of whom the beautiful voice belonged to.

"…Harry, please…"

He ignored the murky murmurs for a second and gazed down dreamily at the rest of him and the girl underneath him, he saw a cup clenched in his left hand. _How silly_ he thought, _to fall over while taking a drink_. Then he remembered… That was Ginny's voice. Suddenly he crested the water and he floundered about to keep his head from descending back into the dingy depths of semi consciousness.

"Urgh…" he groaned. With encroaching awareness came an awe inspiring headache and he noticed from where his head was, on the floor, a large amount of blood pooled around his face. "Herm-i-nee," he croaked as he jabbed her with the cup in a particularly ticklish spot she had just under her arm. She gave a feeble jerk and her eyes blinked more rapidly while her eyes rolled in her head. He poked her again.

"…Harry… Harry are you ok?..."

"I'm ok," he tried to shout, but all he could manage was a mumbled "'m 'k." Hermione looked like she was trying to focus on his face, her eyes went wide, and then she blinked slowly and opened her eyes wide again. "Harry?"

"…Don't move… Set off spells…"

"Ginny… said, 'Don't… move'" he panted. "Stay… Still."

"You're bleeding," Hermione said.

"Got… headache too." He smiled.

"What do we do now?" asked Hermione, she rolled her head carefully to the side and gazed around the room with half open eyes.

"Dunno… Wait to be rescued?" said Harry, he let out a titter, but stopped and groaned when his head started spinning. There was no rescue from this place.

"Just don't move," Harry heard Ron through the two way mirror. "We'll think of something."

Harry did not know how long he and Hermione lay there. Harry's head throbbed in pain, and his weight across Hermione was cutting off circulation to her legs so that every twitch, stretch or flex from either of them sent shards of shocking pins and needles shooting down to her toes. But they could not move… They could not risk a big move lest they set off the safe guards again and be struck unconscious.

"How's you're head?" Hermione whispered.

"Hurts." Harry noticed that she seemed much more alert than he was… His vision still just did not want to stay still.

"Something tells me that their not going to figure out how to help us Harry."

"It'll be ok."

"Do you think you're strong enough to cast a shield charm yet?" she asked softly.

"Sure," he said, more confident than he felt.

"Ok then… I'll cast a shield charm, you roll off me, then you cast a shield charm while I roll over you, and we can leap frog like that to the edge of the dark stones. Do you think you could manage that?"

"Sounds good. Tell me when."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Now," she said. "_Protego_," she cried.

Harry shifted over Hermione and onto his back so that he lay next to her. The spells raining down on Hermione's protective dome would have been pretty had they not been so dangerous. All shades of colour struck it and fizzed away.

"Your turn." Harry raised his wand up in the air and on the count of three, cast a shield as Hermione rolled over him onto his other side. Two more rolls each and they lay on the lighter coloured stone panting in exhaustion.

They staggered to their feet and shuffled over to the wall that was littered with symbolic arrows. Hermione, wasting no time sunk to her knees and pushed on the first triangle at the bottom, it lit up. She ran her hand quickly from one shape to another while Harry stood watching and swaying on his feet.

His eyes narrowed when he saw something different to the wall. When they had entered the room, Harry had checked that the wall was the same, and then it had been; now it was not. The path that the arrows pointed out on the wall branched near the end requiring two people to push on the symbols at once… but now the fork did not break into two different routes… it broke into three.

"Hermione," he said feebly.

"What?" she asked not bothering to turn towards him.

"Look, Hermione." He pointed to where the trail forked.

Hermione stood and stared for a minute without moving.

"What is it?" Harry heard Ginny ask through the mirror that was still propped up against the wall.

Harry knelt down heavily next to the mirror and looked through at his girlfriends face. "There's a three way fork on this side."

"What? But…But…"

"And they're too far apart to stretch to while either of us are pushing the symbols on the other two paths," said Hermione groggily. Looking through blurry eyes, Harry thought she looked a little worse for wear… he did not suppose he looked any better.

"But how are you going to get back? We can't get through to you either… the shapes wont light up since you went through." Ginny pushed the triangle at the bottom to make her point. As soon as she had, the already lit up shapes on Harry's side of the wall flickered off like a candle being blown out in the wind. He heard Ginny gasp. "Harry our side has lit up… I'm coming through."

Ron and Ginny quickly pressed all of the symbols until they came to the last circle.

"Let me push this on my own," Harry heard Ron, through the mirror, say to Ginny. "Then there'll be three people on _that_ side."

"And why shouldn't _I _be the one to go."

"Because," snapped Ron, "I'd like to see _Harry_ get _you _on _his_ shoulders to reach the top symbols. He looks half dead at the moment, and there's no way you could lift him."

Harry did not hear a reply but could just see Ginny's scowl through the mirror. Something happened outside of Harry's view and Ginny suddenly looked very frightened. She moved suddenly and the mirror went black. Harry twitched his eyes up to the circle on his side of the wall and saw Ron and Ginny emerge from it as though they were being squashed through a ring.

Ginny knelt down to him and cradled his bleeding head to her shoulder. "Are you ok?" she asked kissing him.

"I'm fine," he replied although knew that he was looking anything but fine.

"Why did you both come through?" barked Hermione irritably.

"Soon as I touched that circle on my own it set off that snake trap again, so we both touched it together... we had to get away from them."

"How do we all get out?" asked Harry. He was not going to leave one of his friends behind.

Hermione huffed and shook her head as though to clear it. "Three of us go through… Two of us come back through, that leaves three people on this side and then we can all go back."

"Ok you three go through tha-"

"No you need to go through first Harry, you're the only one who can call off the snakes long enough to get them back into the roof ceiling," said Ginny. "I'll stay here and you three go through."

"I'll stay," said Hermione.

"You're hurt Hermione," argued Ginny still holding Harry to her.

"Exactly, which means that if something… goes wrong… and you can't get back through, you've got a better chance of all getting out."

Ron took Hermione's hand. "Hermione," he started softly.

"No, it makes sense… and even if nothing goes wrong and you can get straight back through Ginny'll have an easier time of it than I would, I can just sit here and rest."

Harry was starting to struggle to hear what was being said. He could feel the curses that had struck him clinging to his body, his head spun making him feel sick and his eye lids felt like lead. They began to close on their own. He tried to fight it, his eyes rolled upwards as though they were trying to push his lids back open but it was to no avail, just as he gave in and allowed himself to sink into a stupor and he felt his pains slipping away he felt a sharp smack to the side of his face. His head spun and his ears rung and pain ripped through him again. He half focused his eyes on Ginny and suddenly coughed into his hand, it came away red.

"Merlin… what…"

"Come on," he heard Ron say, "let's go. Hermione we'll be back for you, we'll only be a minute."

Harry was hoisted to his feet and Ron helped him over to where he was going to have to push on the wall, while Ginny already started to follow the symbols in their weaving trail. It seemed like hours before Harry was pushing on the little circle and being sucked through with Ron and Ginny.

"_Stay back_!" he had to hiss as soon as he arrived on the other side. Ron cast the best levitation charm he had ever pulled off and moved every one of the snakes back up and held them there while Ginny locked the trapdoor.

Harry eased down to the floor with Ron and Ginny's help and sat back against a slimy wall. His breathing was shallow and it was all he could do to remain conscious. The faint pink glow of the Aduron fairy that sat in the bottom of its cage, sulking, was drifting Harry off to sleep.

Time seemed to drift peculiarly, almost as though he was not really part of it, and darkness seeped down over his vision.

"We'll be back Harry," he heard as though from through a dense fog. "Just hold on."

He did not remember closing his eyes, but knew he must have when he was shaken awake. He saw Ginny's worried face in front of him and Ron behind her, supporting Hermione who was slumped against him, one arm around his shoulders; her eyes were rolling around half closed. What ever spell it was that Voldemort's trap had hit them with was lingering, and getting worse.

"Come on Harry. Come on. On your feet. Get up." Ginny tugged under one of his arms but he was too heavy for her. All he wanted was to close his eyes and go back to sleep, instead he forced himself to move. He managed to get to his hands and knees, but getting one foot underneath him to push up was too much for him, he just did not have the strength. He heard Ginny and Ron swap places and felt Ron's stronger arms seize him around his chest and lift him to his feet.

"Merlin you're heavy," he complained. Ron's arms felt like a vice around him, his breathing was already laboured and painful and he felt incredible relief when Ron threw one of Harry's arms over his shoulders and released his grip on his chest.

While Ron half carried him down the corridor Harry wondered whether this was what Dumbledore had felt like back in the summer, when Harry had been the one under _his_ arm.

"Don't worry Harry," Ron tried to reassure him, the panic in his voice had the opposite effect though, "we'll get you back to Grimmauld place, and, and we'll find Madam Pomfrey, and, just don't worry, it'll be ok."

"Bill," Harry said coarsely, it felt like knives were scraping his throat as he spoke. "Need Bill."

"Well… ok Harry, we'll get Bill too, but-" whatever the but was, Harry never knew because no matter how hard he tried, he could not stop the darkness encroach on his world and send him to its inky depths.

**A/N: So… What you think?**


	27. Goodbye Horcruxes

**Goodbye Horcruxes**

Harry swirled in a dark fog, inky clouds churned on the inside of his eye lids. He could vaguely hear voices and sounds, crashing and banging. But it was meaningless to him; he was floating; adrift from time or space, worry or strife. Sounds merged and became hollow; he did not know how long he had been here. He remembered vaguely a burst of pink light, but that had been long ago. It was a pleasant feeling, one he did not want to lose. But he could feel it slipping away, gradually fading, like the night gave way to dawn.

The misty unconsciousness changed into the dim blurred vision that let Harry know that he was without his glasses. He did not know how long he had been asleep but he still felt tired.

He saw a blurred outline of red hair above him. "Ginny?" he asked, his voice struggled to comply with his wishes.

He heard a woman's deep laugh, definitely not Ginny's. "No, I'm afraid not, but I can go and get her for you."

The lady, who ever she was, left and Harry rolled his head to each side. On one side there was a wall, on the other side, the rest of the room; he thought he could make out another bed against the opposite wall, with a still form in it, but his eyes were notoriously bad, and the light was dim in the room.

The door opened quickly, and Ginny came in, he could tell it was her straight away even though he could not see properly. She moved in a unique way and he caught her flowery scent on the air.

She plonked herself down on the edge of his bed and slid his glasses onto his nose.

"You ok?" she asked.

"I'm tired."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Tired? You've been asleep for a day."

Harry opened his mouth a little but nothing came out. "The cup?" he asked as suddenly as the thought came into his mind.

Ginny nodded her head towards Harry's waist. He looked down to a large lump to the left of his hip. He through back the covers on his bed to see himself, pyjama clad, still clenching the cup in his hand.

"We couldn't get you to let go of it."

"Hermione?"

"She's still asleep but she'll be fine."

Harry looked to his right, confirming his suspicions that it was Hermione in the bed next to his.

"What happened?"

Ginny cocked an eyebrow. "What's the last you remember? You were awake but delirious for quite a while."

"I was… we were… walking, back along the corridor where the statues attacked us." Harry sat up slowly and Ginny helped him push his pillows up behind his back.

"Well we managed to get you both out, which is easier said than done, getting up that rope was really hard. Anyway… we got you out and you were still sort of conscious, you were muttering and stuff, and Hermione was getting worse, so Ron apparated us all to Grimmauld place. He ran away to find some one and I managed to get you two onto beds. Oh… yeah, Ron apparated the fairy with us too, I think he thought it'd be a bit harsh leaving it there in a cage. So Ron came back with Bill and Lupin and told me Tonks had gone off to find Madam Pomfrey." Ginny looked away for a minute as though she had something stuck in her throat.

"Ginny?"

She turned back to him with tears standing in her eyes. "I was so scared Harry… Bill and Remus… They couldn't… they didn't know what was wrong, and you were getting worse. You were coughing up blood and-and your head was bleeding- ," she had to pause and she wiped tears from her cheeks. Harry held out his arms and she crawled onto the bed and nestled under his arm. "I thought you were going to die."

"It's alright… I'm fine now, right? It's ok."

Ginny sniffed and dried her face off. "Yeah. Madam Pomfrey and Laura Bonit turned up; they didn't really know what was happening either. Tried to shove me and Ron out, but we weren't having any of that!" She sat up next to him on the bed, her eyes were drying, she took his hand and smiled. "Laura saw the fairy… asked what it was, and we told her 'bout how it had bit you and made you weirdly happy. So she took it out the cage and made it bite you again." Ginny actually laughed a little. "We were all so shocked, Madam Pomfrey was _not_ happy with her… and then the bite started glowing pink, but you stopped coughing and you settled a bit, so she made it bite you again. Of course it wasn't very happy with her either, so she was bitten a fair few times too, and her hands were glowing bright pink, and she had this big goofy grin on her face." She let out a giggle over the memory and gazed across at Hermione. "She made it bite Hermione a few times and you both got better. Simple really when you think about it. She's been watching over you both since then, she's still quite cheery."

Harry thanked Laura Bonit profusely next time he saw her, but she shrugged it off. "You're still ill Harry. I focus on spell damage and even though I don't know what any of those spells were exactly, they were obviously really dangerous. You need to take it easy for a little while. No work, or quidditch, or anything else like that."

Hermione woke up in no time, and they left in the evening to sleep in their own beds. The next couple of days were boring. Harry felt fine, but Laura had told him he was not allowed to go to work until she said, so he stayed at home and just chatted to Ron and Hermione. Umbridge owled him with a disaplinary note about taking time off but he ignored it.

He could have been planning and scheming about how to get into the Department of Mysteries so that they could get rid of the Horcruxes, but Ginny already had an idea. She had noticed that Percy set an alarm on the office when he left at night; her plan was to sneak in under Harry's invisibility cloak and set the alarm off. The security wizard would rush off to see to it, at which point, Harry, Ron and Hermione would hurry in with the Horcruxes. They would not have much time, Hermione was very conscious that the alarms might alert the Aurors, who could turn up within minutes. That was just a risk they were going to have to take.

The alarm was louder than Harry had thought it would be. He and Ron were running across the atrium of the Ministry of magic, and Ginny had set off the alarms, they were blaring across the Atrium echoing and bouncing. He wished he could block his ears but his hands were full of the ropes holding a struggling statue of Godric Gryffindor. The ropes were taking most of the weight, Harry and Ron were just pulling it along, but it was hard work, not least because the statue did not want to cooperate. Hermione ran along behind them, holding Hufflepuff's cup in one hand and Slytherin's locket in the other. The uncomfortable feeling of the Horcruxes running down his neck was almost as unbearable as the deafening alarm. They reached the lift and Hermione punched the lowest level.

The alarms stopped as suddenly as they had started.

"Hermione?" Harry heard a whisper.

Hermione reached into her pocket and drew out the two way mirror.

"Yes?" she whispered back.

"The security guard is heading back down, hurry."

"It's ok we're already in the lift."

"Ok… I'll come down as soon as I can."

Hermione pocketed the mirror just as the iron grates pulled back to reveal the dim corridor. They made their way to the end. Harry's heart was beating rapidly in his chest. They came to the door… it was locked.

"Well," said Hermione, "that was to be expected."

"Well open it then," said Ron.

She frowned at him but went to work. Harry kept looking back over his shoulder; he was half expecting the security guard to show up in one of the lifts while they were trying to get in. He wondered whether they would receive the same fate as Sturgis Podmore, who had been found trying to break into this same door.

"What's taking so long?" Harry asked Hermione impatiently.

"Well it's not like they let people just strole in," she snapped sarcasticaly .

Ron ducked around her so that he was between her and the door and inspected it quickly. He turned suddenly and began inspecting Hermione's hair.

"Ron?" she said batting him away. "What on earth do you think you're doing?"

He smiled and plucked a hair clip from one side of her head making the hair fall down on one side. She glared at him as though he had gone mad. "Ron!" She growled at him, making an effort to keep quiet. She looked quite shocked at his behaviour but Harry thought he saw where it was heading.

Ron grinned cheekily, taking no notice of Hermione, and bent the hair clip before kneeling down and fiddling with it in the key hole. The door clicked a minute later and swung inwards. Ron turned and winked at Hermione as he picked up his end of the big Horcrux and pulled it into the circular room.

The door snapped shut behind them and the doors spun dizzyingly.

Hermione pulled out the mirror again. "Ginny," she said quietly. "We're in… but the door's shut behind us like before. Where are you?"

"I'm a little trapped at the moment," Harry heard a faint whisper back. "The security guard and I are sharing a lift; I'll get back to you."

Hermione shared a glance with Harry. "I'm sure she'll be fine," she said, "which door do you think, do we just call out?"

"I think so… the exit appeared for me like that last time…" he stared off at a door for a minute, lost in thought. "Do you remember that door, the one that was locked?" he asked suddenly.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Well, um yeah I do. Why?"

Harry played absently with the rope coiled around the Horcrux. "Dumbledore told me, after Sirius died… he said that the locked room, held the power that I have, the power that Voldemort can't stand."

"So... Harry we can look later; I think we should go to the Death Chamber first."

"These doors all have key holes…" he said ignoring her, he looked up at Ron who held up the bent hair clip and an eyebrow, questioningly.

Harry nodded. "The locked room," he called out loudly.

The walls spun and one of them rattled, as though it had tried to open but could not. Harry walked over to it and Ron handed him the clip. He knelt down and slid it into the key hole. He drew it back out, but it had not melted. He fiddled for a couple of minutes before he heard a satisfying click.

He looked back up at Ron and took a breath.

"Harry…" said Hermione in a warning tone. "We don't have time for this."

He spared her a glance. "This is important too… I think."

He opened the door.

The room on the other side was bare but for a desk to the right corner with an inch of dusk on it. The walls were white and the floor tiled. There was a glow in the room; as though the very air was pink. It shifted in eddies and gusts, like dust motes, although there was no wind. Harry stepped into the room. Love washed over him, hitting him like opening the door of a furnace, he smiled to himself, he recognised the feeling well. He walked to the desk, caressing the swirling pink glow as he went. It seemed to recognise him. The light coalesced around him; it was thicker where he walked. He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the name on the folded piece of metal on the desk. The light appeared to rush around him faster. He shivered, but it was not unpleasant. He reached down to the name plate and lifted it tenderly. He had never known where his parents worked, but now he knew where his mother spent her days. The engraved name read 'Lily Potter'.

He circled the desk and sat down in the chair on the other side, knowing that his mum had sat in this very same place, he lovingly touched the edge of the desk. He ran his fingers through the dust, breathing deeply, trying to get some sort of recognition, but it just smelt like dust.

Harry opened the draws in the desk; there were seven neatly divided folders, full of parchment and little booklets. The draw on the other side contained a photo… of _him_. A tear leaked from his eye but he smiled as he took it and sunk it into the bottom of his robe pocket. Wiping his cheek he shook himself and removed the folders from the draw. Standing up, he picked up everything there, leaving the dusty desk empty, he had always had the cloak from his dad but he had never had anything of his mum's before. He wanted to be able to read her work.

Harry left the room, noticing for the first time that Ron and Hermione had not followed him in. He reverently closed the door.

"Harry?" Hermione said tentatively when he stood staring at the door.

He turned to face her and silently held up the little name plate he had found. Her mouth opened in surprise. "Oh my."

"She must have worked here," Harry said. "I was wondering… would you mind sending these home?" he gestured to everything he was holding.

"Of course." She waved her wand and they disappeared.

"Thank you."

Harry shook himself trying to dispel the irritating feeling that the Horcruxes had on him.

"Let's go. The Death Chamber."

The doors turned and then one opened to reveal a place that he never wanted to return to.

He instantly heard the whispers.

They walked down the steps and stood on the dais, right where Sirius had stood before he was sent through the veil. Harry felt like shedding another tear, but refrained.

"Ready?" asked Harry gruffly.

"Ready," they both replied.

Ron picked up the statues shoulders and Harry its legs, they manoeuvred it into position and both shoved hard on its feet, it slid along the ground head first still struggling against its bonds but regardless of its struggles it disappeared behind the veil and did not emerge from the other side. The whispers grew louder for a second but quickly returned to the annoying twittering as it was before. Harry let out a sigh of relief and Ron threw the statues sword through after it. Hermione picked up the cup and stepped up to the veil throwing that through too.

Hermione screamed and staggered backwards clutching her left hand in her right. Ron caught her as her knees buckled. She groaned in pain.

"What's wrong?" cried Ron, "what is it?"

"My fingers… my fingers." She let out a sob. Her face was contorted in pain as she rocked back and forward in Ron's arms. "Argh, it hurts." She dropped her right hand so that she could look at her left. Harry froze in horror as he saw the blackened tips of her fingers. The very end of the three longest fingers on her left hand looked just like Dumbledore's arm had looked before he died. Blackened and burnt. "My… my fingers brushed the curtain… they… argh."

He spun around as the door burst open above them. Ministry officials filed through the door, their robes billowing as they fanned out on either side, there were at least twenty of them, and the last to come through was Gawain Robards, looking as menacing as ever and clutching Ginny in one arm, his invisibility cloak draped over the other. Ginny was glaring at him and trying to kick his shins but he was much larger than she was. Harry crouched and drew his wand, feeling ever so much like a cornered animal.

"Move away from the veil." Harry whispered to Ron.

"What?" he whispered back.

"Move out of the way of the veil!" Harry hissed out of the corner of his mouth. If anything went wrong and spells were cast, he did not want someone pushed through… not like Sirius.

"Potter!" Growled Robards. "What in Merlin's name do you think you are doing?"

Harry did not answer… he did not know what to say… instead he edged across the veil a fraction until he was standing directly in front of it with the locket of Slytherin resting just behind his heel Gawain took a step down towards him and Harry used it as an excuse to step back himself, he kicked out with his heel as he stepped back and the necklace scraped across the ground.

"Not far enough." He heard Ron whisper. "I'll do it."

Harry heard a whispered incantation and for the first time that day the tingling on the back of his neck disappeared as the locket passed on… He sighed in relief. Now he just had to get past Robards.


	28. The Unspeakables

**The Unpseakables **

"Lower your wand Potter," Robards growled.

"Let Ginny go," he replied, sounding more confident than he was.

Robards glanced at her and then back at Harry. "Something tells me you're not in a position to bargain."

Harry's eyes flitted from side to side hoping to see any gaps, any way to escape. He chewed his lip nervously. He was reminded of the last time he had been here, cornered in a very similar manner. He remembered the Death Eaters apparating into the hall of prophecy. If he could apparate up to Ginny quick enough, grab her and apparate again he might be able to get away… Ron would hear the apparition and follow suit. It was worth a go.

Harry turned. Nothing happened.

"Trying to run away?" Robards accused. "I thought more of you." He was slowly descending down the platforms. "Now lower your wand."

"Sir… we're on the same side."

"Then what are you doing _here_?"

"You said to me once… You told me that although there are people keeping secrets from you… that everyone was working towards stopping Voldemort… that they were good people. Well that's what we're doing here, we're trying to stop Voldemort… and if you arrest us –"

"If we're on the same side Potter, tell me what you were doing in here!"

Harry did not know what to say… "Sir…"

"Not good enough." Robards roughly yanked Ginny closer, holding her close to him with his left arm clenched around her shoulders, Ginny's hands gripped Robards' forearm and her neck craned away as she struggled for breath. She stopped struggling when the end of Robards' wand touched her temple, her chest heaved with her laboured breathing.

"What?" cried Ron.

"What are you doing?" yelled Harry. "What on _earth_ do you think –"

"Why are you here?" He shook Ginny, "tell me!"

"Let her go!" Harry raged.

"Last chance Harry…"

"Let… Her… G-"

"Wrong answer… _Cruc-_"

"NO!" Shouted Harry, his voice cracking. Rage like he had not felt for years flooded through him… his fear of capture, his worry of being out numbered, all rational thought, went out of his head in an instant. Only the love fed anger mattered to him. The wand in Robards hand shattered and Harry was not even aware that he had done it. All he knew was that he was pointing his wand at Robards face and dearly wanted to curse him.

Ginny lashed out with an elbow behind her and struck Robards, he winced but brushed her aside with a swipe, she ripped the invisibility cloak from him as she was thrown to the floor and slid across the smooth stone, she crumpled, but rocked into a sitting position once she had stopped. She glared at him with a look matched only by Harry's.

"Give me a wand," demanded Robards of the Ministry employees who circled them. Harry spared a tight glance to his left and right, noticing that somehow Ron had positioned himself to his left, and Hermione, shaking like a leaf was at his right.

No one handed over their wand. In fact they were all staring at him, looking completely shocked.

"A wand… Someone give me a wand." He cast his eyes about. "You," he said clicking at the official closest to him on his left, near to where Ginny now sat, "give me the girl's wand."

"You were going to curse her!" the man accused.

"We need to find out what they are doing here in the Department of Mysteries," he did not deny anything.

"I saw it," said a woman across the room, she had abandoned her position around them and was slowly walking towards Robards. The rest of the wizards and witches were all focused on Robards too. "You were going to curse the girl… with an unforgivable."

Just then the door at the head of the room opened again and in came the last person Harry wanted to see. Umbridge sidled through the door followed by wizards and witches all dressed in the same uniform… Unspeakables.

"Hem hem…" coughed Umbridge delightedly. "Well then," she said sickly sweet, "what seems to be the trouble here?"

The Ministry officials all began talking at once, half accusing Harry of breaking in and the other half accusing Robards of trying to use an unforgivable curse. Umbridge slowly began to saunter down the large stone steps; the Unspeakables remained clustered around the door in their long black robes. They all shared looks with each other.

When Umbridge reached Robards she glanced contemptuously down at Ginny who was still sitting on the floor, propped up on her arms sticking out behind her. The toady face looked back up around the room and she held a podgy hand up for silence. It came slowly.

"Need I remind you all?" she started, in her honey coated voice, "that Aurors have been granted the power to use the unforgivables?"

"Against You Know Who and Death Eaters-"

"Not against Harry Potter and his friends."

The wizards around him protested.

"Enough," said Umbridge again, "it's besides the point… I am here now, and I am the senior Ministry official, so I'm in charge now."

"Wait just a minute," objected Robards. I am the Head Auror and in situations like this it is _my_ say that counts."

"Oh no, no, no, I –"

Harry noticed the Unspeakables sharing another look and one of them gave a small nod to another. The wizard who had received the nod stepped forward, he had each hand buried in the black sleeve of the other arm, his grey dashed hair was pushed back and his burly lined face was strong.

"Actually," he interrupted them politely, "it is our authority that controls here."

Umbridge spun to face them angrily; her squashed face was screwed up in anger. "You have no right -"

"Actaully, Madam Umbridge," he interrupted her again, "it is you who has no right… no right to be where you stand. This is the Department of Mysteries if you had forgotten, in a room filled with the whispers of death. A room I might add, that has had far too many uninvited wizards in it in resent years." His eyes drifted to Harry, who almost thought he saw a slightly respectful nod of the head. "Now come… Minister Scrimgeour is waiting in his office. Madam Umbridge, Auror Robards, you four," he removed his hands from the opposite sleeves and pointed as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, "follow us please. The rest of you, I thank you for your vigilance when you thought we had had a break in, but your services are no longer required. Good night." The other Unspeakables began to move and Harry slowly made his way over to Ginny who had stood up. The four friends stayed close together, their eyes wary, as the other Ministry wizards filed out one of them handed Ginny's wand to an unspeakable. When they were alone in the room but for four Unspeakables, on of them motioned with her hand. "Come."

They moved cautiously out of the room. Two of the wizards went through the door just before them and two came just behind, like guards, one of them gave Ginny her wand back.

"I know you're probably not feeling very sympathetic towards us at the moment," Harry said to one of the guards just behind him.

"Quite the opposite, but please carry on, you wish something?"

"Well… Hermione was hurt down there,-"

"Say no more." The wizards came to a slow halt and the front wizards turned around towards Hermione. The dark man in front of her raised his eyebrow, suggesting her to show him the injury. She held out her left hand and clenched Ron's in her right.

"What happened?" whispered Ginny.

"Her fingers brushed the veil," Harry replied.

The wizard gently rolled her hand over and bent her fingers, inspecting the burnt tips from every angle. Eventually he sighed. "The veil," he begun, "is a gateway to the afterlife; we know very little about it. What we do know is that anything that passes beyond the curtain, even fractionally, enters the world of the dead… and we know that once something enters the next adventure… it cannot come back. I am afraid to say that although you are lucky that only the very slightest amount of flesh entered the afterlife, these wounds will never heal, and the pain will never ease… I am sorry."

Hermione's lip trembled as they continued walking.

They were the last ones to enter Scrimgeour's office. The Minister of Magic sat behind his desk wearing a blue dressing gown tugged tightly around him, with two Aurors standing closely behind his shoulders like sentinels. Robards stood glaring, by the far wall and Umbridge sat with a false smile in front of the desk. There were already five Unspeakables lined up by the walls closest to the door, and their four guards joined them when they entered the office.

"Would you care to explain?" Scrimgeour asked Harry. He did not break eye contact. He shook his head once.

Scimgeour turned his head down to his folded hands and pursed his lips. "Gawain?"

Robards stepped forwards and recounted what he knew… that he had been alerted to an alarm, and had found Harry and his friends in the Death Chamber.

"So…" said Scrimgeour tiredly, "what were you doing there Harry? Why were you in the Department of Mysteries?"

"I'm not going to tell you," Harry replied through gritted teeth, "or are you going to start using the cruciatus curse on my friends, like he was going to?" Harry thrust out his chin towards Robards.

Scrimgeour flicked his eyes to Robards and raised his eyebrows questioningly, all traces of sleep gone from his face.

"A perfectly reasonable course of action," Umbridge answered for him, "as you will know, you yourself issued the order on my advice to allow Aurors extraordinary powers during this war, those powers include using the unforgivables when judged necessary," she smiled, "this would most certainly prove necessary,

"If you remember Minister, I have been warning you for months that Harry Potter is not trust worthy, and that he should not be allowed into the Ministry itself, if you had listened…" she tailed off with a 'I told you so' look on her face.

Surprisingly Scrimgeour did not get angry as Harry was expecting. He simply nodded slowly, which did not bode well.

The Minister locked his focus on one of the Unspeakables… "Bring me a vial of veritaserum." He demanded.

Harry shared a frightened look with his friends and then glared at the Minister, he could not believe this. Scrimgeour did not meet his gaze but instead rested an elbow on the arm of his chair and clicked a tooth with a nail. If he was forced Veritaserum it could ruin everything… if people found out about the Horcruxes then Voldemort could find out… He could find out that he had none left, and right after Harry had finally managed to destroy them… It would all have been for nothing. If the opportunity arose, they would have to fight their way out.

The room was tense while they waited for the veritaserum to come, Harry felt cornered, trapped and afraid. Scrimgeour conjured up some tea in a green patterned cup and took a gentle sip.

The minutes dragged by.

When the wizard entered with the veritaserum Harry was shaking slightly, with anger more than fright. His teeth ground.

Scrimgeour calmly took the vial and tipped three drops into his tea cup. He pushed it across to the far side of the table.

"Gawain... Drink this."

The silence could have been cut with a knife.

"What?" Robards asked hoarsely.

Scrimgeour locked eyes with him. "Drink it," he commanded menacingly.

"Sir –"

Scrimgeour stood quickly, his fists leaning on the table, his mane of hair flying like an angry lion's. "When Madam Umbridge persuaded me to pass the law to give extraordinary powers to Aurors, you fought me tooth and nail. You will remember I hope, from that day, the other powers that I passed... like the power to arrest someone on simple suspicion... You drink this Gawain or I'll suspect you of being a Death Eater."

Robards glared as he stepped slowly towards the desk. He picked up the cup of tea, his eyes flitting for a way to escape. There were none. He drunk it.

When he set the cup back down, his eyes were glazed.

"Are you Gawain Robards?" Scrimgeour asked.

"Yes," he replied, his voice sounded disinterested.

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Are you acting under the orders of any Death Eaters?"

"...Yes."

The Aurors behind Scrimgeour stood straighter and shared a look between themselves, their fists tightened around their wands.

"Why are you taking orders from Death Eaters?"

For the first time since taking the veritaserum Robards hesitated, it looked like an internal battle was going on inside. He opened his mouth to reply.

"Stop," cried one of the unspeakables, stepping forward and holding out his hand palm out towards Scrimgeour.

The Minister glared at him. "What do you think you are doing?"

"This man is not only under the influence of veritaserum. He faltered... something only possible while under veritaserum if there is other magic at play. I would suggest the imperius curse."

"Can you break it?"

The unspeakable looked unsure for the first time. "I can try to use legilemency... it has had some success in the past."

Scimgeour nodded. "Take him over to the corner and try it." The unspeakable did as he was told. Scimgeour focused on a shocked Madam Umbridge... "Your turn," he growled.

It turned out that Umbridge had had no contact with Death Eaters and was just being her old self. Scrimgeour sent her from the office in disgust. He stared after her for a second.

"Your turn Potter. Drink up."

Harry swore to himself quietly. He had thought, when Scrimgeour had made Gawain and Umbridge drink the potion, that he had got off.

Harry shook his head slowly. "No."

Scrimgeour gritted his teeth, drew his wand and signalled to the two Aurors behind him. Harry raised his wand quickly, as did his friends, and surprisingly all of the unspeakables. The wizard with the grey hair, who appeared to be in charge stepped forward, pointing his wand straight at the Minister.

"What in Merlin's name do you think you are doing?" Scimgeour demanded an answer.

"I think you need to ask yourself that Minister..."

"This boy broke into the Department of Mysteries, your department; don't you want to find out why?"

"I don't need to know why... he is the chosen one; that is enough for us."

Scrimgeour raised an eyebrow. "You've been reading too much of the _Prophet_."

"I don't read the newspaper. But trust me when I tell you that this young man is our only hope and without him every person here would already be dead."

"What are you talking about?"

The wizard smiled wryly. "There's a reason we are called unspeakables Minister."

Scrimgeour ground his teeth together in frustration, clearly seeing just how many wands were pointed at him. "Fine. Get out of here Potter, and I don't want to see either of you," he pointed between Ginny and Harry, "working here ever again." He flicked his wand and the door burst open. Harry and his friends rushed out before the Minister changed his mind, getting fired was perfectly fine with Harry, considering what could have happened, he did not know how much use he would be in stopping Voldemort if he was in Azkaban.

The unspeakables filed out after him and the last one shut the door behind him. They began to head towards the Department of Mysteries. The head of the Department was the last to leave. "I was wondering whether you would mind having a word with me back in my department Harry?" he asked. Harry gave a nervous glance towards the Ministers door before nodding.

They were lead to a large office in the Department of Mysteries and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry all took seats in front of a dark desk, and the unnamed unspeakable sat on the other side.

"I understand if you don't want to tell me... but did you enter any other rooms before you went to the death chamber?"

Harry felt guilty when he considered not telling him the truth. After all, this man had just saved him from drinking veritaserum. He nodded apologetically.

The unspeakable chuckled into his hands. "The locked room?" he asked.

Harry nodded again.

"That room had not been opened for over a decade and a half. We could not open it. How did you get in?"

"Er... I picked the lock."

"Hmm... We tried that... We tried every spell we know." He paused for a while, contemplating his interlocked fingers resting on the table. "I know the Minister told you that you were never allowed to work at the ministry again... but we have a private floo here," he smiled, "and we very rarely listen to the Minister. If you are agreeable, it could be beneficial to us both if you were to study what is in this room?" He lifted his eye brows making it clear that it was an offer.

"Er well... thank you... If you don't mind... I think I'd like to think about it a bit."

"Of course, letters to the head of the Department of Mysteries will find me. If you have had enough for one night, you may use my fire place to return to your home."

"Thank you," Harry said as he got up. The four friends shook hands with the department head and left through green flame.

They all collapsed onto the chairs and sofa, breathing out a huge collective sigh.

"Merlin, I thought we were done for," said Ron. "I really thought we were heading for Azkaban." He tilted his head and kissed Hermione's temple. "How's your hand?"

Her forehead was furrowed in pain and she gently felt the tips of her fingers with the thumb of the same hand.

"I suppose... I'm just going to have to get used to it." She closed her eyes and a single tear leaked out. She stood dejectedly. "I think I'm going to go to bed," she said.

Ron waited a minute and then followed her up.

Ginny and Harry sat in silence, close together, Ginny's head rested on Harry's shoulder. He realised after a while that she had fallen asleep against him, her chest rose and fell rhythmically, but Harry could not sleep, and the blush through the windows told him that the new day was already starting. He had not expected this mission to end as it had. It had turned out better than it could have, the Horcruxes were destroyed and Voldemort was once mortal at last, but it had also gone so, so much worse than he had hoped for. He and Ginny had lost their jobs, Ginny had nearly been cursed, Hermione had been permanently scarred, and he had discovered what his mother had done for a living. Remembering that he decided that as soon as Ginny woke he would go and see what her notes said, and depending on what they said he would write a letter to the head of the Department of Mysteries to let him know whether he would be returning to the locked room.


	29. It All Starts With A Letter

**It All Starts With A Letter**

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat around the fire with steamy cups of hot chocolate in their hands. The polished wooden table in front of them was littered with the open green folders that Harry had taken from the locked room; the reports from them lay scattered messily across each other.

"I can't understand this at all," Harry complained.

There were sections of writing that were like a diary entry, where his mum had been leaving notes and explanations for herself, but these lucid parts were sparsely inserted between equations, crossed out words and abstract essays detailing things that Harry had never heard of and could not understand. He found himself ignoring the work that had been done and searched out instead the more personal writing, it felt as though he were able to connect somehow with his mum, he could study her hand writing, see the way that she wrote, it was like he could see the thought processes she had been going through when she had been writing.

"To tell you the truth Harry, I'm struggling to make head or tail of most of this too," Hermione let him know. "Your mum was incredibly clever." She rose, half standing, to be able to pass a roll of parchment to Harry. "You might like to read this."

Harry took the parchment holding it with one hand at the top and one at the bottom, he began to read.

_I have decided that making the force of love visible has been my biggest breakthrough, the spell was a long time coming but well worth the wait. Links and patterns suddenly began to become apparent to me when I could actually see them, it seems to be attracted to consciousness, it surrounds me while I write, it works not with lines or bonds as I suspected but in a more organic way, it flares and shifts, like a breeze buffets it, but as much as it is blown around it still cannot override the attraction it has to people, love acts like a magnet reacts to metal… It's a shame I feel, that some metals are not magnetic. _

_I could not believe at first how it reacts to Harry, it surrounds him, encompasses him almost, it is a most amazing sight, like watching the swirling and eddying of water, and I realised that it made perfect sense really, he is surrounded constantly by people who love him, and as young as he is I can only hope he feels our love and reciprocates it. I've noticed the flow around him changes when he's around different people, it is strong, and perhaps it is simply my imagination but I can see a steady beating pulse, when he is with me; when he is with his father, and more so when he is with Sirius it is like watching a swarm of Aduron fairies at twilight, it is hectic, erratic and fast moving, full of bursts and swirls and crashes, but it is still so powerful._

_My next move I think, is to try to harness the love, to use the force that surrounds us all to a greater or lesser degree, so that I can use my love to protect the ones that I love, I do not know where to start, and I do not know what I will have to do, but I will try everything I can to protect those I care about... and perhaps that is the greatest power of love... its ability to drive us to do incredible things._

Harry swallowed heavily and swiped away a tear running down his cheek. He swallowed again and smiled, it was a wonderful treat to be able to hear his mum write about him. He stood unable to sit still, he felt invigorated and full of energy, even if he had had next to no sleep for two days. He had not slept at all after they had returned from the Ministry of Magic, and had spent the day browsing through his mothers work, but not taking anything in, after a few hours sleep the next night, Hermione began to help him sort through it.

Harry walked around the sofa and crossed into the kitchen area; it was nearing lunch time and he wanted to give his hands something to do. Making sandwiches would take care of that.

"You haven't found the spell my mum was talking about have you?" Harry asked Hermione, "the one that lets you see love."

"I have in fact," she said holding up a sheet of paper, "but I'm going to have to go through the workings with a tooth pick before I would be able to use it. There are no simple instructions with it."

Harry nodded and buttered another slice of bread. He heard Ron let out a slight snore from where he had fallen asleep on the sofa. "I think I'll write to the head of the Department of Mysteries; tell them that I want to go back in the room," Harry said, Hermione turned, rested her forearms on the back of the sofa and lay her chin on them, "I'd like it if you could come too, Dumbledore said that love was my greatest strength, I'd like it if you could help me try to understand what my mother meant by harnessing the power, and whether she succeeded."

Hermione smiled and nodded as though it were a silly question, "of course I'll come."

"Thanks," he said opening a jar, "Pickle?"

Harry walked with Hermione out of an office door and down a wide corridor; they were following the Department Head, to the locked room, they both carried the green folders under their arms; that they had removed from the locked room the first time they had been there. They passed the odd Unspeakable on their way, who stared at them shamelessly. After but a day of corresponding via owl, Harry had arranged a meeting in the Department of Mysteries. It had been readily agreed that Harry was to be able to do just about what ever he liked in the locked room, when ever he wanted, with whoever he wanted... as long as no one found out. The way the meeting had gone it seemed to Harry that as long as he stayed in that one room, he had a completely free reign.

They stepped through a door and into the circular with many doors. The Unspeakable they were following stopped next to a door, his robes fanned out as he halted. "Well," he said patting the door fondly, "I'll leave you two to it. Remember, don't go outside of this Department, and come see me when you're finished, and you can leave through my fire. Bye then."

"Bye," said Harry, as they were left alone. Harry and Hermione both turned to face the door. Hermione reached out her right hand and prodded it, but it did not move, so shaking her thick hair out, she handed Harry a clip. He bent down on one knee in front of the door and prodded around purposefully, staring at a point off to the right, his eyes out of focus. After a minute or two he frowned.

"Everything ok?" Hermione asked.

"No," replied Harry quietly, "I've got it, but it won't turn." He reluctantly drew the hair clip back out and rose to his feet slowly.

They stood next to each other silently for a while, both thinking separate thoughts.

"Harry?"

"Uh huh?"

"What were you _thinking_ when you opened the door last time?"

Harry turned his head to look at her properly his eyebrows raised. "_Thinking_?"

"Yeah, thinking."

"Er, I don't know... 'I hope this works' maybe? What's your point?"

Hermione huffed. "Well, this is the love room... what if you need to use love to open the door?"

"But the whole reason we're trying to open this door is to figure out how to use love!"

"Ok, ok, here's my idea, I think that the other day you were focused on something or someone that you love, and that feeling of love was what opened the door."

Harry screwed up his face in dislike of the idea, surely someone in the sixteen years it had been locked for, would have managed to open it, but he admitted to himself that it _might_ have something going for it. He sighed. "Ok then, say you're right, what would I have to be thinking to open the door?"

"Anything that makes you love, I suppose. Were you worried about someone when you tried to open the door last time?"

He shrugged slowly and held his hands up. "I don't know... what were we doing? We had brought all the Hor-... er... everything, into this room," his eyes flashed round to check if anyone else was nearby, even though all the doors were shut, "and you were talking to Ginny through the mirror because she was stuck in –" His eyes shot up to meet Hermione's after a sudden revelation. "I was worried about Ginny because she was stuck in a lift with the security guard."

Hermione gestured towards the door impatiently. "Well go on then... try opening it while you're focusing on Ginny... or me... or Ron... anyone you care strongly about."

Harry ducked back down onto one knee and put the hair clip back into the small key hole, his hand pushed against the door and before he had even started to work, there was a click and the door swung open away from him. The pink light that filled the room was quite still; like a million tiny stars hanging in the air. They both quickly hurried into the room, excitedly, and the light reacted like a burst dam. It suddenly began to swirl and gush around them both.

Harry pushed the door and it clicked closed.

When Harry had been in here before he had been alone and the forces in the room had reacted to only him, but now Hermione was with him, she was slowly drifting her hands through the air in an attempt to caress the light, she wore a serene smile on her face. The pink light was responding to them both. It twisted in eddies and spurts but overlaying it all was a roiling current that linked them both, it surrounded them, a steady stream of their love for each other.

They stood close to each other by the door for a long while, just watching the fascinating light. Then they slowly moved to the table together and laid the folders they had brought across them.

"I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to do any work in here," said Hermione peacefully, a sudden violent surge of light swirled around her as her smile and eyes widened, "I wonder what would happen if I were to bring Ron in here? Or if you were to bring Ginny?"

Harry noticed a rapid but short lived burst of light around him that accompanied Ginny's name and wondered if he had the same sort of smile plastered on his face as Hermione had on hers.

The pair of them stayed in the room for hours, reading through the notes that Lily Potter had left behind, and enjoying their time together. Just being in the locked room was a joyous experience, but they did not get a lot done. They decided to come back tomorrow and see if they could make any more progress.

The two of them came back day after day after day, and although Hermione was frustrated every time they returned home, Harry thought that he was beginning to grasp something... by not grasping it. He found that every time that he consciously tried to manipulate the force of love he would have less of an effect on it. But by ignoring the force of love itself and concentrating on its recipients, he put on an incredible display of swirling pink light. He began to practice everyday, and slowly but surely he was realising that rather than manipulate the light, he had to control his own thoughts, and when he did he was seeing reactions appear in front of him.

One night when they returned home Ron handed him a letter addressed to him. He opened it carefully; he hardly ever got any post these days. "Ginny's already checked it for curses," said Ron.

Unfolding the letter he shuddered as he recognised the scrawl of writing.

_Potter,_

_The Dark Lord will attack the Ministry on March 21st, in his last step to take over... Stop him._

Harry turned it over, but there was nothing on the back. His eyes wandered as he pondered the note.

"Who do you think sent it?" asked Ron.

"Don't you recognise the handwriting?" He handed the piece of tatty paper to Ron who frowned.

"Not really."

Hermione took it from him. "Snape!" she said simply. Harry nodded.

"What about Snape?" asked Ginny, who was descending the stairs.

"He's sent a note," answered Hermione. Harry glared out of the window, ignoring the quietly creaking Ford Anglia and not noticing the villagers coming home from work. "I know you don't like him Harry, but he told us where the Horcrux was... I think we should trust him."

"What about Dumbledore?" asked Ron, "do we just forget that Snape killed him?"

"No of course not, but maybe there was a reason for it. Why else would he be helping us? I think he's still on our side."

Harry was having a very similar silent battle in his mind, but no matter how much sense it made, it could not get rid of the fury that accompanied the thought of his former Professor. He clenched his hands into balls. Reason was telling him that Hermione had a point, but his heart was not about to listen, his heart told him that Snape could never be trusted.

Ginny's hands slowly circled his waist and the side of her face rested on the back of his shoulder comfortably. He sagged his head and released his hands with a frustrated sigh.

"What's worse?" begun Hermione, "Ignoring this note and there _actually _being at attack, or trusting the note and there _not_ being an attack."

Harry nodded. "Sure I see your point, but where would be the point of the note if _nothing_ was going to happen? What if it's a trap, or a diversion to get us – everyone – in the ministry and then he'll attack somewhere else."

"Harry you're just not making sense now. If Voldemort was planning to attack somewhere else, it wouldn't do to put everyone on alert, even if they are in the wrong place. We should believe it; it makes more sense if it is true."

They all stood in silence, no one looking at each other. Until, "Ok," Harry said. "Ok... we've got no choice, I suppose we have to trust he's telling the truth."

"We'll have to wait until last minute before we do anything though," said Ron, Harry heard them shuffling around behind him, he was still starring out of the window. "Otherwise he'll do the same thing that happened when Hogwarts fell and change his plans."

Harry turned around in Ginny's arms and smiled down at her. Ron sat in one of the armchairs with a leg thrown over an arm, and Hermione was on the sofa with her legs tucked underneath her, Harry led Ginny to the spare seats on the settee and they sat down.

"We should tell the Order of the Phoenix," said Hermione.

"No," said Ginny resolutely, "there's someone in the Order that's been telling Voldemort stuff. _He'd_ know that _we_ know in five minutes."

"I'll tell Lupin," suggested Harry, "I trust him, and I can tell him not to tell anyone else."

The four of them sat in another silence for a long time after that; all of them thinking their own thoughts and worrying their own worries. And Harry could not help but feel that this was going to be it. That either he or Voldemort would not be walking away, he was, at last, going to fulfil the prophecy and be free of the shadow that constantly hung over him.

As the sun started to dip behind the horizon Hermione stirred. "What do we do now?" she asked.

Ron's stomach rumbled. "Dinner?" he suggested.

Hermione bit her lip. "Um... I was thinking a little more long term than dinner."

"It's a good idea though," said Harry, rising from the sofa and straightening his robes. "I'll start dinner. And then after that... we start to prepare."

"You have a plan?" asked Hermione.

Harry nodded nervously. "Yeah," he replied, picking up a saucepan and turning on the hob, "I've got a plan."

**A/N : Next couple of chapters are half written... trying to get them done before the 7****th**** book. The story's going to go straight to March 21****st**** next.**


	30. The Best Laid Plans

**The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men**

Harry awoke slowly; he was comfortable, pressed against Ginny's back, with his arms draped around her. Her scent filled his nostrils, and her hair lightly tickled his face. He pulled her back tighter to his stomach as he tensed and stretched his muscles in preparation of rising. His consciousness dragged its way up from sleep until it hit a fragment of memory that ripped his eyes open... Today was the day.

He must have stiffened or jerked, because Ginny suddenly made a half roll and took a quick breath as she woke. She looked up at him with her half closed but incredibly beautifully brown eyes, and smiled, reaching up she rubbed them with the back of her hand and arched her back in a morning stretch like a cat, she shuddered as the stretched finished and rolled all the way over so that she was lying with her head on his shoulder and one leg and arm draped over him.

"Morning," she said.

"Morning," he replied.

She raised her head with a frown on her perfect face. "Are you ok?"

Harry swallowed. "Today's – well... I think I'm just a bit worried."

Ginny's smile sunk as she remembered what day it was. "We've got lots to do, we should get up."

He nodded and they started to rise, but Ginny snatched his arm quite suddenly and drew him into a fierce kiss. "I love you Harry," she said.

"I love you too," he replied as sincerely as he had ever been.

She closed her eyes and nodded once as she let out her breath, satisfied. They got up and dressed quickly, both in green robes.

They had to be ready to meet with the members of Dumbledore's Army. Harry's fake Galleon still worked, and since they had received Snape's letter he had met with all of the DA who had responded to the Galleon and told them that there was trouble he needed help with. He arranged to meet with them all in a couple of hours where he would tell them what was going on. He was not going to let them leave his sight after that, just in case one of them let slip that they knew of Voldemort's plan to attack the Ministry. There were not nearly as many of the DA as he had hoped for.

The Order of the Phoenix had been informed the night before. Remus would gather up them all later on that day, and tell them what would happen; they were going to meet with the DA in the Ministry Atrium, after Harry told the Ministry what was going on. He was so worried about there being Death Eaters inside the Ministry that he did not want to bring them in until the last possible moment. There were undoubtedly Death Eaters inside the Ministry of Magic.

The four friends ate a quick and plain breakfast then sat just looking at each other. Harry was trying to fix his friends faces into his memory, he hated the idea of something happening to them, but it was all too possible for him not to prepare for it. He just hoped that his friends could all get through this. He had a plan, knew where everyone needed to be, and what they all needed to do, but in his plan he was on his own, which meant he could not protect his friends.

The morning passed far too quickly for Harry's liking, they all separated one by one at different points, where they made sure that the others all new just how much they meant to each other. It was a sad time, but Harry felt better knowing that if he died that day, his friends would know how much he loved them.

When they were ready they apparated into Fred and George's flat, and Ginny snuck down to the shop. She returned a couple of minutes later. "There are still a few customers left, Fred and George are hurrying them out."

They sat around and waited.

One of the twins stuck his head into the room. "We've closed up for you, we're going to head to headquarters now, see you later."

There were two pops and then they were alone again. Taking one last look at each other they descended to the main part of the shop and waited for the DA to arrive.

They dribbled in, in ones and twos, but when they were all standing or sitting in the shop, down the aisles and on top of the counter, looking intently at him, Harry could not help thinking that they did not stand a chance. Only thirteen people stood before him.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny stood some what apart, the others were turning to them for some sort of guidance. Harry took a small step forward.

"None of you know why you're here, but I've got something to tell you all, if, and only if, you agree to something first. If you chose to stay and hear what we have to say, then you cannot leave. We can't let you go, for fear that Voldemort will find out."

Harry could see the fearful faces turn pale, but no one moved. Neville Longbottom flicked a glance at the others around him and stood. "If this is about You-Know-Who, then I want to know, I'll stay." There was a general mumble of agreement and Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Please be patient, and wait until I have finished before you start asking questions, but I want to explain my plan fully." He took a deep breath, catching as many eyes as he could while he gazed over them. "Nearly a month ago we received a tip off that Voldemort was planning an attack on the Ministry of Magic. This is his final leap towards taking complete control of the country. He is going to throw everything he has at this attack, because once he's taken the Ministry that's it, he's won.

"Ron," he gestured towards his friend, "wanting to confirm the tip off, spied on the Death Eaters. He snuck into Hogwarts and listened into conversations. Voldemort is attacking the Ministry late this evening.

"I've called you all here because we are going to need all of the help that we can get to stop the attack. The Ministry doesn't know about this at the moment. We're going to have to tell them at the last minute, so that Voldemort doesn't find out, we think he's got spies in the Ministry. The difference between this battle and any other is that this is the first time that there has been any chance of killing Voldemort once and for all. So I won't be fighting with you, I'll be waiting for him down in the Death Chamber, if he or any of the Death Eaters ask you, I don't want you to hide that from them... I want Voldemort to know where I am... I want him to come.

"You won't be alone though. Hopefully the Ministry will listen to us, but even if they don't, the Order of the Phoenix will be there. They're the group that Dumbledore made to fight Voldemort. That is... if you choose to help us..."

Neville stood back up, his eyes were blazing. "I'll fight," he said loudly. The agreement was slower this time, the faces look shocked. But Luna Lovegood hopped off of the box she had been sitting on and skipped to Neville's side. "Me too," she said as though she would have been missing out not to. "It'll be just like old times won't it," she breathed with a smile.

"Not quite," said Dean Thomas, "'coz I'll be there too."

The round of accessions slithered in, and soon everyone had agreed to help. Hermione pointed towards the curtains that separated the joke shop from the darker materials. "Through that curtain is a room full of items that may very well save your lives. If you think you might need anything in there, take it... don't worry, it won't cost you a knut."

Although time had flown past that morning, now it dragged. Harry just wanted to be there, he was ready to fight, desperate to let out the anxiety.

The time eventually came when Hermione and Ron were meant to leave, they were going to go to Grimmauld place and make sure Remus had everyone ready.

"I'll see you in an hour Ginny," Hermione told her.

"You'd better," she replied giving her friend a hug.

"And then I'll be right down to help you Harry," she promised him.

He smiled and nodded. "Remember, don't open the door until I say."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. I'll see you soon."

Ron caught Harry's eye. "Good luck," he whished.

"Thanks. You too."

Ron and Hermione hurried up the stairs to the flat and used the fire to floo to Gimmauld place.

"Right," said Harry loudly, although there was probably no need, everyone was still and silent. "Let's go convince the Minister of Magic that he's about to lose his Ministry."

Harry led them up the stairs and one by one they stepped into the fire.

Ginny was surrounded by friendly faces but the one that she wished she could see was not there. Harry had left her. Her breath hitched and she hoped and wished and prayed with every fibre of her witchly being that she would see him again. This waiting was the worst; it gave her time to think about things too much. She hated her brain when it started thinking. She turned drastically pessimistic and thinking the most awful thoughts about the situation she was in at the moment could not be trumped.

Still she was surrounded by friendly faces... and... some not so friendly faces. The atrium of the Ministry of Magic was quiet, an unusual fact in and of itself, but considering that it was almost full of Aurors, officials, and the DA, it was creepy.

It had been surprisingly easy to get the Minister to agree to deck out the Ministry in its armour. He had fallen to the same hurdle that Harry himself had fallen to. "_If you act and we're not telling the truth then we waste everyone's evening, however, if you don't act and we _are_ telling the truth, then there will be someone else sitting in your chair tomorrow morning._" Scrimgeour had called every able bodied Ministry wizard in a jiffy. He had not even blinked when Hermione informed him that the Order of the Phoenix would be turning up too.

Come to think of it... they should have already arrived. She suddenly felt a constriction on her chest and tingling in her fingers as adrenaline caused by nerves rushed through her body. She shivered, and it was not from the cold.

There was a sudden CRACK of Appiration and about a hundred wands were snapped up in the direction of the sound. Ginny was flabbergasted that no spells were accidentally cast.

"Dementors," cried a scraping panicked voice, "Dementors are attacking Plymouth."

There was a ripple of murmurs through the crowd before another loud POP. "Giant," came the cry this time, "Giants are destroying Diagon Ally."

Just as Scrimgeour began shouting for order another wizard Apparated in. "Death Eaters, in Cardiff, they're everywhere, help."

Williamson, the Auror who was in charge now instead of Robards was close to Ginny. He marched across the distance between them and glared down at her. "Damn you. This whole thing was a bloody diversion," he jabbed a finger into her shoulder. "We're leaving now, you'd best not be here when I get back." He turned and stormed away.

Ginny snapped out of the paralysing shock and leapt after him, grabbing the back of his teal robes. "No," she yelled, "they must be diversions for the main attack here."

Williamson spun around. "Let go of me," he told her as he shoved her shoulder. Ginny toppled backwards and landed in an incredibly undignified manner on her bum with her hands out behind her. Wizards and Witches all around were disappearing with a swirl of their cloaks. "No," she cried, "No, don't go," she shoved herself to her feet. "Don't go." But there was almost no one left. "Come back," she said, her voice sounded pitiful even to herself. Taking a deep breath she let out a bellowed scream of frustration. "Damn it!"

After having been surrounded by so many qualified wizards she now felt stupid, she was just a girl... just a girl, surrounded by other boys and girls... and they didn't stand a chance. No... no that wasn't right, no one here could be called a child any more.

Harry had come in here, demanded to be seen, said a few choice words and everyone had bowed down for him... _she_ tried to persuade one person and she got her arse handed to her. "Damn it!" she said again.

She twirled around to face the scared faces of everyone who remained. Her DA and six others, they were doomed. One of the people who had stayed she recognised, it was the Auror called Poppet, the one who was in the Order.

"What now Ginny?" asked Susan Bones.

"The Order haven't turned up –!" said one of the others.

"Where are they?"

"Their not coming,"

"What should we do Ginny?"

"NOTHING," she yelled, "we can't... this doesn't change _anything_. We still have to fight, and the Order _will_ be here. Hermione and Ron will bring them, and they're worth more than the Ministry wizards any day... They'll be here; we've just got to be patient –"

Ginny heard the sound of many Apparitions behind her and turned round, but instead of getting the sense of relief at seeing members of the Order appearing, she was filled with dread as she stared into the face of the man who had given her nightmares like no other. The last time she had seen that face it had been staring at her bleeding body as she was being saved by Harry. Now it looked like he had come to finish the job.

Close to thirty Death Eaters were stalking behind him, probably his best, his most trusted, and his most vicious. Ginny was shaking so hard she thought her teeth might start chattering.

Voldemort lifted his head high and let out the most evil laugh Ginny had ever heard. It seemed to go on and on like he would never run out of breath. "This," he laughed again. "This is all that stands in our way." He shook his head. "Children and a few Aurors." Ginny wondered if he had missed the fact that Dean was probably taller than even He was. He cocked his head. "But no Potter? Where oh where could Harry be?"

Ginny heard two pops from her left and turned quickly. Two of her DA had Apparated away. She heard another Apparition from the other side but as she turned to look she saw Hannah Abbot reappear, thoroughly splinched.

"Can't have you all leaving so soon," drawled a voice next to Voldmort Ginny turned to stare at him but could not tell who it was from under the mask, "it would spoil our fun, I would suggest none of you try Apparating anytime soon."

"Please Master," said one of the others, "don't make us wait any longer."

Voldemort smiled indulgently, "Lucius, I would take it as a great personal favour, if you made the Weasley's time here very unenjoyable. Her pitifully weak mind has already told me that Potter is waiting for me down in the Department of Mysteries. Remember," his voice suddenly turned dangerous, "he's mine. I'll return when I've taken care of him. Kill these children and then set up the wards, don't disappoint me."

Voldemort gracefully and quickly made his way straight through the DA to the lift... no one even tried to stop him.

Malfoy stepped up in front of Ginny. Her eyes travelled up to his. Even behind the mask she could see his evil smile. _Well I'm _not_ going to go quietly_, she thought as she swung out her wand.

Harry stood on the highest tear of steps in the death chamber next a door that led into the time room; his heart was thudding in his chest. He could hear bangs and booms from up above, which meant that Voldemort was here and the Order of the Phoenix, the DA and the Aurors were fighting him and his.

The door opened on the far side of the room and he clearly watched Voldemort enter and look around. Not seeing anything he descended the steps slowly and gracefully until he stood directly on the other side of the veil to Harry. He could actually see his hated foe as the whispering winds flapped the curtain of death. The most evil wizard alive slowly wandered around the veil, inspecting it, letting his eyes gaze its length and breadth occasionally reaching out his long fingers and brushing the stone. The next time he stopped he was directly between Harry and the veil. Harry's was sure his heart was going to explode. He slowly poked his wand out from between two folds in his invisibility cloak and aimed it at the Dark Lords back. His anger at this man washed over him, his loathing for him caught his breath, and the sense of satisfaction he was about to feel egged him on.

_Stupi-, _his cloak was ripped off of him and he staggered to the side.

"Oh no Harry, oh no we can't have that." Voldemort sneered malevolently up at Harry. "A Gryffindor aiming a wand at a man's back? What has the world come to?"

"Hermione now," he yelled, "_Stupify_!" Voldemort did not utter a word but a sickly yellow light met his own spell between them and they ricocheted off in opposite directions. Harry's eyes opened wide… why had they not connected? That thought distracted him for too long and a moment later he was screaming at the top of his voice on the floor, in so much pain that he could hardly think, his nerves were on fire, each one telling him that he was being burnt alive, that he had to put it out.

It stopped for a moment. "You didn't really think I would keep that old wand did you? It is an excellent wand… powerful and filled with grace… but it had a weakness and I could not allow that." He took a step towards him… Where was his wand… he needed his wand. But before he could find it Voldemort had screamed "_Crucio,_" and Harry was flinching and writhing again.

Time slowed down, and every moment of agony seemed to last an eternity. He realised his eyes were opened wide, and he could see every detail of the man torturing him, his horrendous scarlet eyes, wide pupils and bloodshot whites, his disgusting flat nostrils flared open in his excitement, Harry could see his sneer, the way his lips curled and his eyes gleamed, he thought he could see each individual fibre in Voldemort's robes. Voldemort's left arm was pointing straight at him; his right hand held close to his body and making crushing gestures in enjoyment.

"Ahhhh," Harry moaned as the spell was lifted again, he gasped air and rose onto his hands and knees to search for his wand… where was it? He was blasted back into the wall and he head felt like it had split against the hard brick. His arms and legs flopped about him as he landed.

"You thought you could destroy me so easily!" Voldemort roared, suddenly angry and Harry's scar flared with pain that seemed insignificant to what he had just been through. "You thought that you could get to my Horcruxes without me knowing?" He returned to his pacing around the stone archway. He chuckled softly. "Oh Harry, you got so close… I'll admit you did better than I ever thought possible, but I created another… one that has been sitting right under my nose since Halloween."

A harsh cackle faintly reached Harry's ears past his own screams as the next curse hit him, he did not care that the laughter was at his expense. Anyone could laugh at him for the rest of his life and he would not care, just as long as this pain would stop… anything for the pain to stop. He wanted to sob… to cry… to scream louder, as though it would provide a release for his anguish, if only he was able to, but through his twitching and thrashing he realised that he could not draw breath, his scream had stopped because he did not have any more air in his lungs, but he could not draw another breath. He was going to die, he knew it, and he longed for it, the sweet release would be welcome, and he would at last be gone of the misery.

He was still watching Voldemort, and realised in an instant that he had cracked, he had gone mad, the anguish had finally driven him over the edge… he knew this because he was sure as day that the sword of Gryffindor was sticking out of the side of Voldemort's chest and his pain seemed to have changed to a dull ache. The sword slid out of Voldemort and clanged on the ground, Voldemort dropped to the floor. Harry saw the sword of Gryffindor pick itself up and fling itself straight through the veil.

A hand grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him backwards and through a door. He swung his head around trying to get his bearings, he saw Voldemort rise back to his feet just as he saw the door slam and noticed a glittering mass of sparkling light, he squinted and the time room came into focus… someone had pulled him into the time room. He turned to see who his rescuer was and came face to face with… himself. He froze for a second in complete confusion. In that second his wand was forced into his hand and a time turner was thrown round his neck.

"I know this is weird," said the other Harry, "it's freaking me out too, but you have to go back two hours; you have to get into Hogwarts and you have to release McGonagall and Hagrid, the incantation is _Agotractus_ and you have to jab the end of your wand into the pocket of frozen time. You have to get the sword of Gryffindor from Dumbledore's office, Voldemort made it into a Horcrux. And then you've got to take them to Grimmauld place."

Harry rubbed his forehead, which was pounding. "I'm sure Hermione told me never to let myself be seen!"

"Ha… What's really going to get you later is that if I told you this, and a future Harry told me, and a future Harry told _him_… How did Harry know in the first place?"

His head was bursting and before he could bring his brain to focus he felt the other Harry grabbed the time turner and a moment later he was looking at the inside of his bedroom at Godric's Hollow.

He flung open his trunk and yanked out the Marauders Map, and quickly disapparated.

**A/N : What you think??? I've got about 4000 words done of the next chapter... which i think is pretty good. Do you think i should finish it and have it really long or split it in half and post the done bit early??**


	31. Through the Veil

**Through the Veil**

"They're taking their time," said Ron. Hermione could feel his words vibrate through his chest as she clung to him in the entrance hall to Grimmauld place, the Order was getting ready in the kitchen but with the door shut the hall was quite, and Ron and Hermione were waiting there for Remus to make everyone else ready.

"They're taking too long," corrected Hermione. "Ginny will be worried, we are meant to be there already."

"Ginny will be fine," assured Ron, "and if any of the DA start getting cold feet I'm sure she'll snap 'em back in line."

"I'm worried," Hermione confessed after a couple of minutes.

"About Ginny?"

"About all of us… About Harry, and Ginny… and you."

Hermione was hoping for reassurance that everything would be ok… that he would be fine and that they would all get through this. It did not come, instead he said, "I'm worried too."

Hermione swallowed. "You are?"

Ron nodded back slowly. "I want you to know..." he broke eye contact and shifted a bit, "well, if anything happens to me I-"

Hermione placed a finger firmly on his lips, her brows pulled together in a frown. "No," she said, "no, don't talk like that."

He slowly took her hand away. "I want you to know that I love you."

She could feel her eyes filling up. "Oh Ron, I love you too." They fell tighter into each others arms. Ron bent his head to that he could nestle it against hers. "But nothing will happen... we'll both be fine."

Hermione felt his head nod next to hers. "I hope so," he whispered.

They stayed like that for a long time.

It was not until Hermione felt Ron shift to look at his watch that she realised how long.

"Their taking their time," he said.

Hermione twisted Ron's arm so that she could see the time too. She gasped. "I'm going to go hurry them along."

The kitchen of Grimmauld place was chaos; every Order member was crammed into it and rushing around, dishing out Fred and Georges wares, stashing little vials under their belts and swinging the latest shield cloaks around their shoulders. Hermione darted through the madness scooting around people and climbing over the table at one point.

"Remus," she called, but the noise in the room was deafening and he did not hear her. She carried on past faces she recognised, she was held up for a moment or two when Fred snagged her and wrestled her to a stop while George buttoned one of their cloaks around her neck; she wriggled out of his grasp flashing him a grateful smile, and carried on towards the hub of activity. Lupin was by nature a quite man and Hermione had always seen him most of the time comforting people and giving confidence but now he was taking charge, giving orders and sending ripples out through his people, preparing them for what was to come. "Remus we need to go," panted Hermione when she reached him, "Ginny was expecting us ten minutes ago…"

The calming Remus came back as he looked at her. "Don't worry Hermione, we're not about to duck out of this at the last minute. Just give us a minute."

She was so full of adrenaline and anxiety and excitement and worry that his soothing words did little to placate her. "I'm not saying you're going to quit but if you're not going to be ready soon, Ron and I are going to go and join Ginny."

"Hermione," he said firmly, tenderly touching her shoulder, "I understand your worry; I worry about every person here, but please, wait until we are all ready and come _with_ us, the preparations we are making here could be the difference between life and death… quite literally." Hermione looked away and grimaced but nodded her consent. "Why don't you and Ron make sure you're ready, and find some others to stick close to… try not to let yourself end up alone at any point, don't try and be the hero, we all think you're one already, keep your head and be smart, and most importantly… stay alive." He leant forward and gave her a quick hug which she returned. "Good luck." Hermione dabbed an eye with the sleeve of her robe and nodded over a sad smile. She turned and left him, feeling just as anxious as she was before but better none the less.

"Lupin, has Hubard got here yet?" she heard someone call as she was leaving.

"No, but I'm sure he'll show, you know how he is."

She passed back more slowly through the mass of brave men and women, she saw Laura and Daniel Bonit together for a moment as she reached the steps to leave the kitchen, Daniel had a shield strapped to his arm and a sword buckled at his belt, and a Weasley cloak on his shoulders, Laura had charmed them to be resistant to most forms of magic, she really was a very talented witch, Hermione admitted. They both turned when the doorbell went off, causing Mrs Black's portrait to start wailing.

BOOM!

Hermione froze half way up the stairs as a wave of heat pushed her backwards. Her only thoughts were of Ron. She whipped out her wand and shot up to the hallway followed by the entire Order of the Phoenix. Her first sight was Ron, crumpled on the floor near the bottom of the for once silent portrait at the end of the hall, who was staring in shock at the front door at the other end of the corridor. It was hanging from its hinges, the wood was splintered, bits of the wall around it were crumbling and dust billowed around. There, flowing through the doors were Voldemort's Death Eaters.

Hermione dashed to Ron, a feat easier said than done with so many curses flying through the air. She crashed to the ground next to him and felt for a pulse. She sobbed a cry of relief when she found him alive. Blood covered most of his head, and his nose looked broken. Hermione guessed that the spell that blasted open the door must have hurled Ron against the wall.

"Ron?" she whispered urgently, "Ron wake up, please, wake up." But he did not budge. She whipped her head round trying to find someone who could help but everyone was engaged in a fierce fight, just down the hall, in the cramped quarters wizards were being hurt and were unable to flee, or even fall to the ground as they were propped up by the other wizards pressed in tightly around them. Hermione was suddenly grateful that Ron had been flung so far from the door. A group of Death Eaters broke off suddenly, they staggered, bumping off the wall towards the kitchen door, but more of the Order was coming out and the Death Eaters found themselves cut off from the main group. They were bloodied in seconds and unmoving on the floor in less than a minute.

"Come on Ron, come on," she shook his shoulders lightly, "_Enervate_," she tried, "_Enervate_!" Nothing happened.

"You know," she heard a voice drawl, "I'm tempted just to curse you in the back... but I think I'd rather see your face when I kill you."

Hermione turned slowly and looked up at the face of Draco Malfoy, his mask hanging limply from one hand. She did not say anything; she could see though, that he could curse her in half the time it would take for her to get him.

"What's the matter? Has the sight of me struck you dumb?" He smirked.

"You're not a killer Draco," she said hoping she did not sound too desperate. "Harry told me," she got out quickly noticing Malfoy's jaw tightening, "Harry told me you couldn't-"

"Couldn't what?" he yelled, taking half a step closer, his wand was only inches away from her head.

"Couldn't kill Dumbledore!"

Malfoy's eyes were dangerously wide. "And what would Potter know?"

"He was there on the tower, he saw you lower your wand before the other Death Eaters got there. You're not a killer."

Malfoy's eye's left Hermione's and flitted down, he dropped his mask and swallowed. He leant down towards her as though her were going to confide a secret. "The Dark Lord can be very persuasive," he said quietly, Hermione barely heard it over the noise of the fight going on behind Malfoy. "You have no idea the things he has made me do." He stood back up to his full height and when Hermione looked back into his eyes she saw madness dancing there, her bottom lip quivered. "I'm a changed man Granger." He smiled evilly, "_Avada_-"

Hermione, in an act of desperation lunged forward and upwards from her knees, Malfoy was bigger than she, and knocked her easily to the floor but rolling, Hermione drew her wand and cast a curse upwards towards his face. Malfoy lashed out with a foot before she could finish the spell and it struck her shoulder so hard she was tossed back along the floor and struck the wall next to Ron.

Through the blinding pain, Hermione heard Malfoy chuckle. "You really are pathetic you know."

"_Stupify_." Hermione chocked out.

"_Protego_. _Petrificus totalus_."

Hermione scuttled to the side and got up on a knee, the spell struck the wall next to her. "_Silencio_." Malfoy dodged.

The wall to Hermione's side suddenly exploded as a stray curse crashed into it, the splinters scattered through the air, some clung to the opening left by the blast like spaghetti clings to the wall. An incredibly loud and angry roar accompanied the blast. The force of it blew Hermione's thick hair across her face. She quickly swiped it aside as she gained her feet. She could see Malfoy's lips start the curse that she knew was going to end her life.

"_Avada Kedava_-"

"_Sectumsempra_!" She yelled slashing her wand down. She watched horrified as the spell connected just under Malfoy's left ear, it descended leaving a furrowed scarlet line across his throat, continuing across the right side of his chest and finishing as it reached his side. Blood seemed to explode from his body through his neck as he sunk to his knees, his eyes wide in shock, but unseeing, Hermione let out a scream of horror as Malfoy's blood hit her. There was so much. He toppled to his side and landed heavily, his last breath being expelled from his lungs by the impact. The ground was already soaked in his blood, a rapidly expanding pool.

Hermione let out another little scream; she did not know what to do with her hands, her stomach churned uncomfortably, she could feel warm blood on her face, it covered the front of her robes, she sobbed uncontrollably. The crimson pool was edging towards Ron. Hermione shoved him as far away as she could.

"Please Ron..." she cried, tears flowing down her face, "please wake up... P-Please."

Harry apparated to Hogsmead, it was quiet. With Voldemort's base so close people had fled Hogsmead. It felt cold, it was not just the chill spring breeze but something deeper, it settled in his chest and it made him shiver.

He entered Honeydukes as quietly as he could. It was easy to sneak down into the cellar and travel down the secret passage.

He arrived out of breath and wormed his way up to the humpbacked witch. He opened the entrance and wiggled out. Suddenly an ear splitting alarm went off. He spun around in a circle trying to find the source of it. It sounded like a sneak scope. There on the wall above him was a box that looked like a burglar alarm and it was ringing. With one hand over his ear he waved his wand at the alarm, freezing it. The noise stopped.

Breathing heavily Harry looked around to see if the alarm had been noticed by anyone. He quickly unfurled the map and activated it. He was surprised at how empty the castle was. There were a few dots moving around in the great hall, who by the looks of things were beginning to head his way, and a large mass of dots up outside of Dumbledore's office. Then he realised where all the death eaters had gone and hurried towards Dumbledore's office, hoping he would be in time to get back to save himself.

The scene was not quite how he had left it... it looked as though Voldemort had made more Death Eaters try to enter the pocket of trapped time and they had got stuck too. Harry checked the map and was relieved to see that the guard of Death Eaters who he had alerted with the alarm were milling around the third floor. He cast stunning spells at the stuck Death Eaters, the spells got caught in the spell.

Taking a deep breath Harry inched the end of his wand forward until he felt it stop, he tried to pull it back but it would not move, it was stuck in mid air, stuck in time, and like the time that existed in this small pocket, unmoving. "_Agotractus_," he cried.

The effect was instantaneous, the frozen corridor burst to life, the dozens of spells that had been trapped were allowed to finish their course. The corridor was suddenly awash in movement as everyone's motion was kick started, and just as quickly everyone but Hagrid and Harry was laying on the ground. Harry ran to McGonagall, who had collapsed as a spell stuck her.

"Harry?" said Hagrid looking round in confusion, "what's goin' on? Where'd you come from?"

Harry dropped heavily to his knees next to McGonagall, "_enervate,_" he said. He sighed in relief as her eyes fluttered open.

"You alright there professor?" asked Hagrid bending down over them.

She sat up with Harry's help. "I'm ok... Harry? Where did you come from?"

"Professor, what was the last spell you remember casting?"

"I was trying to block the corridor," she made an irritable face, "help me to my feet."

Hagrid reached down and set her straight with one hand.

"What ever you did, professor, it froze time, like there was a little pocket where time wasn't allowed to move. We couldn't get you out... we didn't know how... You've ah... You've been here quite a long time like that, frozen."

McGonagall frowned at the ground, "yes I can see how that might have happened, "how long?"

"It's now March the 21st."

Hagrid's jaw dropped making his bushy beard wobble. "But that's... that's... four months!" he exclaimed.

"It would seem," said Minerva McGonagall as her face fell, "that I made quite an error. What has been happening during our absence."

"I'll explain on the go, but I need to get up to Dumble – er – your office right now."

McGonagall waved her hand and the gargoyle sprung aside. Harry led them up the revolving stairs, Hagrid still looked completely bemused.

"We lost the battle for Hogwarts," Harry said quickly, "and Voldemort's been killing left right and centre since then... to tell the truth I haven't been keeping up to date with what he's been doing but he's leading an attack on the Ministry of Magic right now... or will be in a couple of minutes."

Harry burst through the door at the top of the stairs and strode across the room. About half way across he stopped dead. The cabinet, where the sword of Gryffindor had rested since he had pulled it out of the sorting had, was empty. "No, no, no, no, no." He hurried around the room, throwing open cupboards and over turning small tables.

"Wha' _are_ yeh doing Harry?" asked Hagrid.

"The sword of Gryffindor... it's gone." He stood up from where he was checking under the desk and ran a hand through his hair, had he ever seen the sword anywhere else? No, was the answer, he did not know where to look.

"May I ask why you need the sword Potter?" asked McGonagall.

"I need to destroy it," he said distractedly, "before I can kill Voldemort."

He heard a throat being cleared behind him, and turned and looked upwards where Dumbledore's portrait was smiling benignly down upon him. He cleared his throat again, "um... I believe this is what you are looking for is it not Harry?" Dumbledore held up the hilt of the sword in his portrait.

"What? But how...?"

"Voldemort put it in here you see, and set some quite nasty traps around it as well, although I'm sure you were expecting _that_. I believe he thought it would be the perfect irony for a part of his soul to be protected inside of the portrait of the man who was trying so hard to destroy him." The old man smiled again. "Fortunately he has once again quite underestimated me. Do stand back Harry this is quite sharp."

Harry hurried away from the portrait his eyes wide in barely constrained anticipation.

The sword was ejected from the portrait and fell in a graceful arc until in banged to the floor with a loud metallic clatter.

Harry let out a bark of a laugh and picked it up. "Thank you Professor."

"I trust this means that you have found the others?"

"They're all gone, I threw them through the veil in the Department of Mysteries."

Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded smiling. "Ah quite ingenious Harry. Very good." His voice softened, "I am very proud of you Harry, you have only one thing left to do now. I only hope that after it is done, you can lead the happy life that has been denied to you so far. I will not wish you luck, for you do not need it... you have your heart."

Harry gave Dumbledore one last appreciative nod, and turned to lead the three of them out.

They travelled down the stairs and out into the hall. "We need to get to Grimmauld place, I don't know exactly why but I was told I had to take you both there. Then we'll go to the Ministry. Voldemorts going there and I have to go and save myself from him."

"Harry," said Hagrid, "Yer not makin' one bit of sense, yeh know tha'?"

"Sorry," he said as they charged off down corridors, McGonagall limping along quickly on her cane, "I don't understand completely either, we're heading to Grimmauld place, hopefully Hermione'll be there and she can figure it all out."

McGonagall cursed suddenly. "This is no good I can't keep up." She stopped and gave her cane to Hagrid, "here hold onto this for me, carry on I'll keep up now." A second later she had changed into a tabby cat and kept up easily as they set off again.

They raced down corridors, Harry was constantly aware that he had to be quick enough to save himself from Voldemort. They flew round corners and Harry was leaping the bottom steps on the stair cases.

WHACK.

They had torn around a corner and Harry had run straight into a wizard on the other side. He fell backwards, off balance, and landed heavily on the floor, bracing his arms behind him, his hand around the sword of Gryffindor stopped him from putting his palm down, and he skinned the knuckles along his left hand. The dark shadow of Hagrid strode over him in one bound. Harry grabbed onto his wand as he stood back up as quickly as he could, his robes swirling around him. McGonagall morphed back as she streaked past him, in the blink of an eye. As Harry caught his feet he saw that the Death Eater he had smashed into was also getting up, Hagrid and McGonagall had passed him, separating him from the rest of the Death Eaters. Harry and the masked man attacked instantly. It was a fierce fight, Hagrid and McGonagall were out numbered, but McGonagall's skill and Hagrid's size and tough skin matched the greater numbers. Harry was being forced back away from them, the Death Eater he was fighting was fast, and was reacting to Harry's attacks as though he knew what was coming. Harry had the strange feeling that he had fought this wizard before. None of his old tricks were working, he needed a new one. He dodged an Inpediment jinx and whilst still ducking, summoned the mask from the wizards face, and just as quickly banished it back; the mask reacted as though attached with springs and crashed back into the man's face. His head was jerked backwards by the blow, which gave Harry time to disarm and trip the Death Eater. He marched towards him, keeping his wand trained on his chest. With a flick the wizard was unmasked, revealing Zacharias Smith.

"_You_!" Harry yelled.

"If you can't beat them Harry," he said as though it explained everything, he looked particularly regretful at the moment though. This was why Harry had felt that he knew what he was going to do next; Harry had taught him how to fight. He turned his face away for a second in anger, considering what to do, and then spun his wand back up to bind him. But he had stepped too close, Smith's foot shot up from the floor and hit his right wrist, the blow sent his wand flying and him spinning.

He felt a hand grab his shoulder. It was silver. Wormtail having come out of nowhere spun him around to face him and switched his grip to Harry's throat. He was shorter than Harry but drove him back easily and slammed him to a wall. He could feel the silver hand begin to crush his throat, could feel his Adams apple grinding and crunching, he couldn't draw breath, blood was getting trapped in his head, the pressure was excruciating in his throat, his chest heaved for air, his eyes rolled, his right hand clutched at the cold hand at his throat, and he lashed out and up with the only thing in his hands... The sword of Gryffindor.

Time seemed to slow as he felt the edge of the sword touch Wormtail's robes, he noticed everything, the smell, the sound, the sight. His eyes moved down and he could not look away as the blade first bit into the man's fleshy side below the ribs. Harry's hand led the blade slightly, he felt the skin part and the pressure of the blood and organs begin to slow the sharp edge, he saw the first hint of red spread up the sword, it began to noisily erupt from the split that was left behind it, and globs fell slowly through the air. There was a horrible jar as the sword slammed into the bottom of Wormtail's ribcage, he felt each bone snap, it sent a shock up his arm into his shoulder, and he heard every break. His eyes flashed up to Wormtail's, his little eyes had widened as far as they would go, his mouth hung open. One more shock went up through Harry's hand as the blade stopped in the opposite half of Pettigrew's chest. The eyes he was staring into went flat, the mouth dribbled blood, the weight of the man in front of him suddenly collapsed on the sword. Time sped back up, sounds from Hagrid and McGonagall's battle came roaring into his ears. He dropped the sword as it was pulled backwards with Wormtail.

Harry staggered to the side, keeping one hand on the wall, he reached down with his other hand and picked up his wand. Harry felt his stomach churn. This man had sold out his parents to Voldemort, had sold _him_ out to Voldemort, he should feel happy that he was dead, but he felt horrified, sickened, appalled at himself, he remembered the last judder run up into his hand as his betrayer's heart thudded its last beat, he turned back around the corner and drew in a shuddering breath, if this was how he reacted after killing, how was he going to kill Voldemort. He took another shuddering breath; he was a killer, a murderer. But he'd had to do it hadn't he? Wormtail would have killed him, and then he would not be able to stop Voldemort, and so many more would die. Harry stood taller, his breath steadying. Wormtail had betrayed his parents, Harry would have grown up with a mum and dad if it was not for that man. He would be dead too if he had not acted. He should not feel aghast at himself, he had done the right thing, Wormtail was trying to kill him. Did he not have the right to protect his own life? Of course he did. This was no different from killing Voldemort, Wormtail had deserved it.

Harry's thoughts were betrayed by his violently shaking hands.

A massive hand clasped his shoulder. "You alrigh' Harry?" Hagrid asked.

"Yeah," he said, "yeah I'll be ok."

"McGonagall's tied 'em all up. Yeh ready teh be off?"

He turned and headed back around the corner. Wormtail lay there on the ground, the sword stuck up like a flag. Clenching his stomach and gritting his teeth, Harry yanked the sword out from his chest.

They met no one else in the castle and the Apparated to the small common across from Grimmauld place. Harry's eye's widened like saucers. He saw straight away why he had to tell his past self to bring McGonagall and Hagrid here. So many Death Eaters were attacking that some were still spilling out of the door into the street. Bangs and screams were coming out of the house, Harry could not believe that the muggles could not hear the shouting and cursing.

The three of them charged up behind the Death Eaters who were still waiting to push in. Harry felt no remorse in cursing them in the back. He had two stunned before Hagrid crashed into the back of them. Pink umbrella forgotten he swung at them with his massive fists. They fell left and right. Harry and McGonagall followed him through the door as he blocked the spells being cast at him and systematically knocking out Death Eaters with powerful blows left and right.

Hagrid roared in anger, made a jab at a wizard with his umbrella and then barged his way into the kitchen, a gap formed and Harry got a clear view all the way to the end of the corridor. He saw a black robed figure suddenly jerk his head back, and slowly crash to the ground, revealing Hermione standing behind him, her wand held out and dismay written plainly on her face.

Harry dodged forward through the chaos, most of the wizards left in the hall were Order of the Phoenix, and the rest were being quickly subdued, so he did not have to dodge any curses.

"Hermione," he cried as he sunk to his knees beside her and chucked the sword to the ground, "_Ron_." Hermione flung her arms around Harry's neck. She sobbed uncontrollably, "I didn't mean... I didn't ... I don't," she gasped in a breath, "and Ron... he..." Harry struggled to understand anything that she was saying, but clutched her to him as tightly as he could murmuring, unintelligible soothing words into her ear. "I didn't mean to... it was... he just..." she paused, "he was going to kill me," she whispered.

"I killed Wormtail." Hermione drew back startled, her eyes wide. For a moment her breathing was normal, but her shaking continued.

"W-what?"

"He was strangling me; it felt like – like he was crushing my throat. I hit him with the sword, and it killed him. It's ok... Malfoy was trying to kill you... better him than you right?"

Hermione's eyes were searching Harry's face, and then her attention whipped around to Ron.

"Is he...?" Harry could not form his fears into words.

"He's alive," replied Hermione with a hint of hysteria in her voice. "But I don't know what's wrong with him," she let out another little sob.

Bill Weasley dropped to the floor on the other side of Ron, his scars vivid on his freckled face. "Is he ok?" Bill asked.

"I don't _know_," wept Hermione.

Mentally steeling himself Harry turned to Hermione. "I still need your help Hermione. I need you down in the Department of Mysteries. I need you to open the door for me. Can you do that?"

"Harry... Ron's hurt, I want to stay with him," her eyes had not left Ron's still face.

"I can't do this without you Hermione, you're the only one who knows how to open that door apart from me."

She angrily dashed tears away from her eyes. "Harry no, I want to stay with Ron."

"Hermione _please_-"

"It's ok Hermione, I'll look after him," said Bill.

"No, NO, you don't understand, I can't leave him."

"Hermione, he's my youngest brother... I understand... I'll look after him."

"Please Hermione," Harry begged again.

It did not look like she had heard him. "You swear?" she asked Bill, "you _swear_ you'll look after him," an explosion rocked the house, "you'll keep him safe?"

"I swear. Now go o-"

Hermione reached across and pulled Bill into a bone breaking hug. "Ok, ok, you look after him. I've got to go help Harry. I've got to go." She jumped to her feet. "Come on Harry, come on."

They raced into the kitchen. There were still one or two scuffles. But by the time the two of them had reached the fire place only the Order of the Phoenix were left standing. But they had been hit hard. There were screams coming from somewhere, and Harry thought he had passed a severed arm on his way.

While Hermione reached for the floo Harry turned to face the pandemonium. He had to magnify his voice to be heard. "The Death Eaters are _in_ the Ministry. We've got to help _them_ now."

He turned and he and Hermione disappeared in swirling flames.

Harry was aware that there were no where near as many defenders here now than when he had made his way down to the department of mysteries. He could see Death Eaters slowly advancing on the DA. But he could not see Voldemort. He was shunted forwards as he felt someone come through the floo behind him and fall into his back. As they landed on the floor he got a look at Remus's face. Then the next second the rest of the weakened Order of the Phoenix were streaming out of the fire like a wave. They took no time at all to see the threat of the Death Eaters and the wave crashed and broke against the back of the hooded wizards.

Harry, Hermione and Remus hurried forward into the fight. They lost Remus in a matter of seconds as he left them to fight one of two masked men attacking Dean Thomas. They flitted through gaps and avoided getting into any proper brawls. They were soon at the lift and punching the lowest level.

Harry could not help but fidget and chew his lip nervously. Not because of what was ahead of him, but because while dodging through the chaos he had not seen Ginny.

"You've got the mirror?" Hermione asked.

Harry started then nodded. "Yeah I've got it. Remember don't open the door 'till I say, or els-"

"_Hermione, now_!" they heard faintly.

Hermione's eyes widened as she drew the two way mirror from her pocket just as the lift reached the bottom.

Harry swore. That meant that Voldemort was torturing his younger self right now. He could still feel the aching from those curses.

"Harry? How did you just... I mean... don't _you_ have the other mirror?"

"I had to use a time turner," Hermione's jaw fell to the floor, "I'm in there at the moment fighting Voldemort... well... losing quite badly actually. I've got to go and save myself now."

They charged down the corridor as soon as the grill opened and barrelled through the door at the end.

"The love room," Hermione demanded. The room spun then stopped and the door ahead of her rattled. She sprung forward and with a click the door opened for her touch. "You know," she chocked out, "in case anything happens... you're my best friend Harry, and I love you."

Harry smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder. "I think I know that better than anyone." Because he did know that better than anyone, because he had been practicing legilimency on her since they had received Snape's letter. At first Hermione had hated it, she said that it had felt like he was taking to her brain with an axe while he was blindfolded, and she had been left in tears after one of the earliest tries, when he had unwittingly jumped from one bad memory to another and been unable to eject himself from her mind... he had hated that too. But she still let him practice on her... _made_ him practice on her so that he would be ready, and as he became better at legilimency – which took a surprisingly short amount of time compared to his efforts in occlumency - the experiences had turned around completely. He made a conscious effort to filter through her thoughts and memories so that he only viewed the ones that she felt most positive and happy about. And he had found that beyond doubt, his friend loved him, and he loved her right back.

Hermione turned back to face him just before she close the door behind her. "Good luck saving yourself."

"No need. It's already happened. Remember next time you hear me... open the door."

She smiled and closed the door. Her eyes followed the gap until it was gone.

"The time room," ordered Harry. The room spun again and the door in front of him opened once the spinning had stopped. He walked into the dazzling room and looked around the walls for doors. There were loads of them.

He ran to the door closest and opened it. It opened into a small cupboard. He slammed it shut and ran to the next one... this one was an office. On his way to the next door he stopped and took a step back. There on the side was a row of time turners. He took one, he was going to need it. The seventh door he tried was the one he wanted. As he yanked it open he heard his own piercing scream, a scream that had torn at the back of his throat... he could still feel the roughness of it.

Harry touched his wand to the sword and flicked it towards Voldemort whose attention was all on the younger Harry. It dug deep into Voldemort's chest. He fell backwards with shock written plainly on his face. Harry levitated the sword and tossed it through the veil. He dashed forward and dragged himself backwards by the robes at his shoulder, picking up the fallen wand on the way. Voldemort was already rising. Harry slammed the door between the rooms then slammed the fallen wand into his younger hand and slammed the time turner around his neck.

"I know this is weird," Harry told his younger self, "it's freaking me out too, but you have to go back two hours; you have to get into Hogwarts and you have to release McGonagall and Hagrid, the incantation is _Agotractus_ and you have to jab the end of your wand into the pocket of frozen time. You have to get the sword of Gryffindor from Dumbledore's office, Voldemort made it into a Horcrux. And then you've got to take them to Grimmauld place."

"I'm sure Hermione told me never to let myself be seen!" Harry nearly laughed at how he must have looked when _he_ had been the one who was thoroughly confused.

"Ha… What's really going to get you later is that if I told you this, and a future Harry told me, and a future Harry told _him_… How did Harry know in the first place?"

He grinned and spun the time turner before he could reply to himself.

_Well that was weird_.

Taking a deep breath Harry leant his head a little closer to the pocket where the two way mirror resided. "Now Hermione."

He flung open the door and leapt into the last fight he ever planned on having.

Voldemort was half way up the steps around the room; his chest was unwounded. Before Voldemort had a chance to strike, and determined that nothing would distract him this time, Harry raised his wand to try his last ditched effort to kill Tom Riddle. He felt, as his wand reached its apex, the love that he had called from the now open room down the hall, surround him, it was a shame he could not see it outside of the locked room (he and Hermione had never quite got that spell working) because he was sure that he was putting on the display of his life at the moment. He had figured it out; when trying to manipulate love, love itself was repelled from him, but when his actions and intentions were harmonious and their purpose was for love itself, the most powerful force Harry had ever seen flocked to him like vultures to a kill.

Although Harry could not see the light surrounding him, he was sure that Voldemort could. His eyes widened, and for the first time Harry thought he saw fear in those red eyes, and those eyes hesitated.

Harry did not. Green eyes met Red.

"_Legilimens_," he cried. The spell shot Harry out of his body, and dragged all of the love surrounding him along too. Taken off guard Voldemort barely had time to order his thoughts before Harry's attack slammed into him and the power that Voldemort could never understand crashed and broke through his thoughts, scattering them out of the way.

It was a peculiar feeling, being able to see yourself from someone else's body. People had often wondered whether one person saw the same as the next person, or whether they simply acted like it because they knew no other way of seeing. 'Is my red, your red?' Well for Voldemort, _everything_ was slightly red. Harry wondered whether everything _he_ saw was slightly green.

Voldemort's eyes saw so much more than Harry's own. Last time Harry had done this he had been so scared for Ginny that the experience had rushed by. But now as he turned Voldemort's body to face the veil he revelled in the sight of magic. Voldemort could actually see it, like a physical thing, swirling, shooting, sparking and merging. It looked like something palpable, something that Harry should have always been able to see but for some reason never had. It was wondrous...

Then the veil came into sight. Harry felt himself falter inside, and had to make a conscious effort not to let his fear betray him, for fear of Voldemort getting back a foot hold in his own mind. The magic of the veil was _not_ wondrous. It was scary... violent.

Grey, black, and white swirls like a vicious mist, encircled it, small eruptions came from the veil and caused billows in the fog that rippled out and around to be swallowed up by the other side of the archway.

Harry knew that he might not return from this, but if that was a price he had to pay, then that was what he would do. From these red eyes he could see the love around him burst with energy at that thought, because it was love that drove him, and love that was the cause for his sacrifice.

He walked Voldemort's tall body up onto the dais, directly in front of the arch. The too – now visible – forces, love, and death, tentatively touched. Like dogs meeting for the first time, they sniffed and circled each other, wary and untrusting. But as Harry stepped closer, and the two energies merged more, they quietened, calmed, and their raging swirls changed into calm eddies and soft currents.

Harry felt totally at peace and with a soft smile on the face of the most evil wizard to have walked in Harry's life; he stepped through the veil.

**A/N : I'm currently writing my arse off to finish the final chapter by tomorrow so its out before the 7th book. The man flu isn't helping either. Wish me luck. Leave a Review**


	32. After Death

**After Death**

The first thing Harry saw on the other side of the veil made him choke back a sob. Voldemort's eyes welled up and a serene smile graced his lips. There in front of him were his parents. They stood hand in hand, with smiles on their faces in swirling mist like he had seen from outside the veil. To their left stood Sirius, a large wicked grin on his face, he looked much better than when Harry had last seen him, he had crinkled laugh lines around his eyes and his hair was short. To his parents' right hand side stood the tall form of Albus Dumbledore, his long beard and hair shining silver under a tall red hat, and his eyes twinkling merrily behind his half moon glasses, on his long crooked nose. To his right stood Mr and Mrs Weasley arm in arm and nodding approvingly towards him.

"Mum? Dad?" he asked, his cold high voice surprised him.

They smiled together at him. "Hello Harry," said his father.

"Well done Harry," said his mum, "we are so, very proud of you."

Harry felt a tear run down his unfamiliar face.

"I have to tell you Harry," said Sirius, "I'm not too fond of your new attire." He gestured towards Harry's clothes. Harry looked down at himself and laughed, at the thin dark robes. "Black's not really your colour you know."

"I'll wait a moment to pick a better wardrobe next time," Harry replied, Sirius smiled at him.

"Which will hopefully not be for a very long time," said the deep voice of Albus Dumbledore, "you have done magnificently Harry, but this is not your time, you must go back, and live a long and prosperous life." He held both arms out to the side with a wide smile and Harry noticed that they were both whole and well.

"We'll take it from here Harry," said his dad. His parents let go of each others hands and drew their wands, Sirius circled him so that he was standing between him and the arch which was behind him, and Harry could vaguely make out the chamber in the department of mysteries through the veil. "You have done what no one else could, and it is wonderful to see you," he smirked and waved a hand towards him, "even like that... but it's time for you to go back to your own body now, time to return to the world of the living."

"Just know," said his mum, "that we love you very, very much."

Harry felt another tear streak down his cheek, he was sure Voldemort was writhing in pain right now.

"I want to stay, its not enough to just see you, I-I've finally found you all again... I don't want to –"

"Harry." He turned to face Mrs Weasley who had spoken. "You need to go back dear; there are people who need you."

"Ginny needs you," said Mr Weasley from beside her, his face turned serious, "she needs you now... she's in trouble Harry, you have to go back."

Harry glanced one last time back to his parents' faces; he lingered on Dumbledore's for a second, and swept his eyes past the Weasleys to Sirius. He gave a tiny nod and tipped one of his shoulders back out of the way to give Harry a better view of the veil.

Harry sucked in a massive breath as he slammed into his own body. He was on his knees with his hands pressed heavily on the floor. His eyes rapidly adjusted to the view of the Death Chamber. He was exhausted. He felt like he had just been beaten with a stick. He felt like he was returning from the dead.

Harry slowly pushed himself up so that he was sitting on his heels. He was struggling to keep his aching neck from letting his head droop. He breathed heavily through his mouth and groaned.

There was a noise up at one of the doors into the room, and Harry rolled his head so that he could see. A black robed figure was descending and circling the large steps towards him. The closer he came, the less Harry wanted to be there, so exhausted that he could not raise his wand.

When Snape was but a few feet away, he crouched down in front of Harry.

"You have done it?" he asked. "You have killed the Dark Lord?"

"Voldemort's dead," whispered Harry as loudly as he could.

Snape's eyes closed slowly and what looked like relief passed across his face. Snape stood back up towering over Harry. Harry noticed then, that his wand was no longer in his own hand... it was in Snape's.

"My wand," he breathed, "give me... my wand."

"I should kill you now and be done with it," Snape cursed in a menacing whisper while raising his wand... It hung there for a few seconds before it lowered again. "I am going to disappear now Potter, and you are going to call the Aurors off of me." He stared down at Harry as though he were staring at dirt. "You will not look for me, or ever come after me. Know this... if we ever meet again, I will not be on your side... I will not be on anyone's side. I've had enough."

He through Harry's wand on the floor and disappeared with a CRACK.

Harry did not know how long he struggled with his body, or when he first became aware on the footsteps closing on him, but he did not think it was long before he managed to get a foot under him, and push upwards.

He staggered as he pulled his other leg off the ground and clapped his hands to his knees to try and get some balance. He had to get to Ginny. Mr Weasley had said that she needed him. He managed to straighten enough to see Hermione just as she grabbed him in a hug.

"I've done it Hermione," he said quietly. "He's gone."

She gently brushed his hair off of his forehead with her injured hand, only using her thumb and her little finger as she was now habitually doing. She wormed her way underneath his left arm to support him and summoned his wand from the floor.

"Are you ok?" she asked seriously. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm ok... just... tired..." Leaning on Hermione he started to walk slowly back up to the way out. "I need to get to Ginny. I think she's in trouble."

Harry could never remember the trip up from the bowels of the Ministry. The first thing he remembered after Hermione turned up was the view of the Atrium as the grills to the lift opened.

The cacophony of sound that reached Harry's ears was deafening, a drone of screaming and shouting. He could not see any curses flying now, only people running, and screaming, and shouting. Wizards and Witches that Harry recognised as Healers tore around with bags full of peculiar looking potions and casting spells as fast as they could. Some of the metallic instruments they were flailing about look frankly frightening.

"We need to find Ginny," Harry said feebly.

They searched, or rather, Hermione searched and Harry slowed her down.

There was a huge BOOM and suddenly fighting erupted around them. It looked like the Death Eaters had not been beaten, simply pushed back for a while, because now they were attacking again, with everything they had. They still did not know that their Lord was dead.

"Oh Merlin. Here Harry, get under this." Hermione pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over him. "Try and find Ginny... I'm going to help fight."

Harry wanted to go and help too, but he hurt too much... and he was more worried about finding Ginny.

He pottered about, moving slowly and jerkily, in between still bodies and lumps of architecture that had been blasted to the floor.

He nearly tripped over Lucius Malfoy's body as he rounded one of the larger pieces of roof; he stopped dead... and then fell to the floor next to the prone form of his girlfriend. His own pain forgotten, he let out a sob at the state of her. She looked like she had after Voldemort had kidnapped her and tortured her in the chamber of secrets. Except now she was not moving.

Harry crawled up to her side and took her shoulders in his hands. "Ginny? Please Ginny, don't be dead, please, please, please."

A pulse... he had to find a pulse. He felt at her throat but couldn't find anything... he didn't know what he was looking for. Panicking, he grabbed her wrist. Ginny suddenly flinched away and her chest expanded with a gasp. One eye opened a crack, but the other one was swollen shut. Harry dropped her wrist and she jerked in pain again.

"Ginny? Ginny you're going to be ok." Harry looked around. "HELP... SOMEBODY HELP." He was so weak all he could muster was a dull cry.

He yanked out his wand in frustration. "_Episkey_," he cried, not knowing what else to do. Her face rearranged itself and remarkably healed. He let a breath out in relief. Both of her beautiful eyes glistened back up at him. "You're going to be ok. Just hold on."

"H-Harry... I-I,"

"Shh, shh it's going to be ok."

"I l-ove y-you."

Harry knelt in shock and horror as Ginny eyes slowly closed and her head fell to the side.

Harry knelt on a patch of grass that was by now used to his knees. He had been coming here once a week for four months since he had killed Voldemort. He knelt in the same spot and shed a few tears, brushing them away angrily as soon as he realised anyone else was near by. The grave stone was simple, just a name really. The funeral had been rushed; more a list of names rather than a personal ceremony, but Harry was grieving in his own personal way. He hated how Voldemort had taken so many people from him. Almost everyone he had ever cared about.

Ron and Hermione had been fine of course. Once Ron woke up he seemed back to normal... if a little bit woozy for a while, but nothing serious, his nose was still quite crooked, but he said he liked it, said that it reminded him of Dumbledore. Hermione still had her damaged fingers, but apart from that had sustained no injuries from the fight in the atrium. Harry had been ok after a couple of strengthening solutions and a pepper up potion. But the three of them returned to St. Mungo's every day to visit the injured. And there were many. Laura Bonit and her husband were both injured, and being a medi-witch herself she was not a good patient, she kept trying to get up to help people. Charlie Weasley was hobbling around on crutches everywhere, enjoying it immensely but getting in everyone else's way, and nobody knew _what_ was wrong with Fred. He seemed completely lucid one minute and showed no signs of life the next. George was fine after Bills arm had been removed from his forehead and reattached to the appropriate place on its rightful owner. But those people had been extraordinarily lucky compared to those who had died; those whose grave stones now stood before him. His eyes drifted to Nymphadora Tonks on his right; she had looked oddly at peace when she had been set to rest. No new hair style or peculiar nose, she looked much more like Nymphadora than Tonks at that moment. Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody was to his left, he had most certainly not looked at peace, scars vivid, body parts missing... he had looked every part the grizzled Auror that he was. And then his eyes settled on this last grave in front of him. The name brought a lump to his throat, the name of a person who had taught him more than anyone else he knew. He reached out and touched the stone, tracing the name, 'Remus Lupin,' his fathers friend, and the last of the marauders to pass away. Harry would miss him dearly.

He felt a small hand rest on his shoulder and he got up quickly. He turned around and took Ginny in his arms. She smiled blissfully.

"You were told quite specifically not to leave your bed," Harry chastised her.

"Mmm, I know, but I wanted some fresh air and the healers are annoying."

Ginny was still hurt; she had curses on her that had still not been removed; ghastly curses that Bill had to regularly attack just to keep them from overcoming her. She had been in St. Mungo's longer than any one else, and Harry had stayed with her every day. It had been a constant battle, not knowing whether she was going to be alright, and Harry took a perverse satisfaction in knowing that Lucius Malfoy was going to live out the rest of his life in Azkaban.

Their time after the downfall of Voldemort had not been nearly as enjoyable as Harry had hoped for. There were no fireworks this time... no celebrations. There was a sense of relief... but it was mingled with doubt. People had thought that Voldemort had been gone before, but he came back. Harry knew that he was gone for good, but most people did not want to believe it, because they feared he would return again.

Harry had been plagued with questions, everyone wanted to know how he had done it, and he did not want to tell anyone. Only Ron, Hermione and Ginny knew what Harry had done, and it was going to stay that way. It was becoming a bit much for Harry really, he had always been famous, but he had not had hordes of people waiting outside his house to ask him questions before. And now that the Fidelius charm had been lifted, that was exactly what was happening. They got a rather nasty shock if they tried to enter the house though.

They wizards who were not about to question him, were set on praising him instead. It was a matter of minutes after he had arrived at St. Mungo's with Ginny when a witch with bright green hair fell upon him sobbing. He could just make out the words of thanks coming from her... She had had to be taken away and giving a calming draught before she could speak coherently again.

Voldemort had destroyed so many lives and it would be a long, long time before the repercussions faded somewhat... but Harry did not want to wait that long.

"What do you reckon to moving away?" Harry asked Ginny.

"Moving away?"

"Yeah, to get away from here... I thought that everything would suddenly make itself right once Voldemort was finished... but it's not... I want to go away... until everything has settled down."

"Where to?"

"Around... travelling... I've never been anywhere but Britain... it'd be nice to have a holiday."

"We could go see Charlie's dragons."

"And Bill's Pyramids."

"And I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights."

"I'll happily see anywhere that's not got reporters."

"Bill thinks he'll have me tip top in a week or two."

"A Week or two sounds fine."

"How long would we be gone for?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know... how long does it take to see the world?"

**A/N : A Very rushed finishing chapter... Deathly Hallows comes out in 48 minutes thought... so I wanted to finish this first. I hope you all enjoyed the story... I have a thought for another already, but I'd like a beta for that... and it'll be Alternate Universe. On JK's website she writes about her original opening chapter... where Hermione's dad rescues Harry from his parents house out on the rock in the sea. She said it was a bad idea, but I fancied having a go at a 'what if' story where Harry grows up as Hermione's little brother... any thoughts? Thanks again.**


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